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Cats were brought to Europe from Egypt by Romans. They were domesticated in the regions around Istanbul for thousands of years before they were brought to the a
by bitxbitxbitcoin 6y ago
Cats were brought to Europe from Egypt by Romans. They were domesticated in the regions around Istanbul for thousands of years before they were brought to the attention of the Greeks and Romans. Presumably, the Romans that brought the cats back to Europe saw their benefit to the populations on the other side of the Mediterranean and also adopted the culture of revering cats. The culture of revering cats predates the religion of Islam and is part of the culture that that religion was born out of, and is understandably celebrated.
What benefit does letting cats run feral have for settled humans? Rodent control. Even before they knew the public health benefits of that, they knew the benefits towards granary stores.
Now that cats aren't the only method available to control rodents, cities that don't have a cultural or cultural/religious reason to revere stray cats understandably don't and those that do, do.
Religion plays a role, culture plays a role, biology plays a role, history plays a role: everything plays a role (yes probably even the cuteness of cats).
- ginko 6y agoCats were domesticated in Egypt, not Turkey. And in Ancient times the areas around Istanbul were Greek.
- inawarminister 6y agoGreeks that called themselves Romans for 2 millennia (200BC - 1800 A.D until the Hellenes name is back I think). Fascinating history. The Roman (Rhomaion) identity was decoupled from the Latin language by the Early Byzantines.
- colechristensen 6y agoThe Byzantines never called themselves Byzantines, they called themselves Roman. Lots of places adopted Roman names with varying levels of legitimacy.
- mr_toad 6y agoThere were Greek speaking colonies around the Bosporus and in Egypt before the Romans got there.
- tim333 6y agoEvolutionarily it seems cats didn't change that much and domestic and wild living cats are pretty similar. It's just that when humans became farmers rodents were attracted to the grain and the cats came and helped out with those. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/06/domesticated-cats-dna-genetics-pets-science/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/06/domesticated...