Human Evolution

, Volume 21, Issue 2, pp 85–93 | Cite as

Domestic Fauna and Anthropochorous Fauna

Article
First Online:

Abstract

The term “anthropochorous” can be referred to the fauna which has populations or nuclei of individuals brought to and diffused in geographical areas by the direct or indirect action of humans. This definition therefore implicates the role of humans, either conscious or unconscious, in the alteration of the areas of distribution of the fauna. Hence, all the faunal populations that have originated as a consequence of human intervention fully belong to this category. As well as domestic animals in the strict sense, we can also cite several other “wild” species, such as rats and mice, which at present enjoy an artificial diffusion in areas that are completely extraneous to that of their original distribution.

Keywords

animal domestication anthropochorous fauna kynegetisation 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude to Mariolina Corsini, National Centre for Marine Research, Hydrobiological Station of Rhodes; Simon J. M. Davis, Instituto Português de Arquelogia, Lisbon; Katerina Trantalidou, Ephorate of Paleoanthropology and Speleology, Athens; and Jean-Denis Vigne, Laboratoire d’anatomie comparée, CNRS, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, for the engaging discussions which stimulated the elaboration of this work.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2006

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Laboratori di Antropologia del Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e GeneticaUniversità di FirenzeFlorenceItaly

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