Native American domestication of buffalo?

I had that idea the other day. Would it have been possible for Native Americans to domesticate the buffalo for use as a beast of burden? How would their cultures evolve differently? Would the nomadic Plains cultures eventually develop into more powerful agriculture based societies?

No comments?

Buffalo aren't domesticable, but I suppose you could have a POD saying they are. If so, then it would have a major impact on NA lives... buffalo could take the place of oxen and cattle of the old world. THe natives could have beasts of burden to pull plows and wagons, a dependable food source, and possibly mounts, although buffalo aren't as fast or durable as horses. Still, if we assume that buffalo are domesticated 10,000 years ago, when humans were establishing themselves across the Americas, then there is every possibility that the natives will have a culture not so far off of that of Europe; they certainly have access to the same resources.

Ever hear of the Aurochs? They were the wild ancestors of cattle and looked remarkably similar to modern buffalo in size and shape. Add to that the fact that buffalo can produce fertile offspring with cattle, and I would guess that the buffalo are very much domesticable.

The real issue is probably that humans haven't been around buffalo long enough for domesticating them to be very likely.

yes, I've heard of aurochs. No, buffalo aren't domesticable... just because they are closely related to cattle doesn't mean they act like cattle. Zebras are close to horses, but they aren't domesticable either. Of the four llama species, three can be domesticated and one can't, regardless that they are very close genetically. If buffalo could be domesticated, they would have been.... the native Americans domesticated about every creature in the America's that could be domesticated....

Are there any known reasons why buffalo and zebras and other such creatures aren`t domesticable? (This created an oddly funny image in my head - tribal Africans riding around on zebras. I don`t know why that`s funny to me.)

The 'undomesticable' llama species can not interbreed with the others to produce fertile offspring. Neither can the zebra produce a hybrid with a horse or donkey, much less a fertile one.

Anyway, I find the idea that an animal, especially a mammal, could be identified as inherently undomesticable rather silly. Domestication takes hundreds if not thousands of years in most circumstances - how on Earth do you differentiate between an animal that hasn't been domesticated yet and one that can't be?

Good point. I would think that if the early Native Americans could have domesticated the buffalo, (even if they aren`t domesticable and the POD is that they are) they would develop into civilizations that could easily rival Europe. How would exploration evolve from here? Could Native Americans theoretically discover Europe, and not the reverse?

It's not really likely unless something horrible happens to Europe (Asia, too, probably). The Old Worlders just had too much of a head start.

the reasons why some animals are undomesticable have to do with their social structure (more or less). I remember an article in Discover magazine years ago that discussed this very topic, but I don't recall all the details as to why. Buffalo and zebra were specifically mentioned in the article, IIRC, as two species closely related to our domestic animals, but not domesticable. Onagers can crossbreed with horses, but they aren't really domesticable (although a lot of people in ancient times tried to do so). From what I remember, domesticability has a lot to do with a species' subservience to an 'alpha male', although that isn't the whole story. Horses and dogs were probably pretty easy to domesticate, as their social structure is very submissive to alpha males. Cattle and sheep were probably less so, but it was still done. Pigs and cats are somewhat of an exception, as they don't have herd structures. Cats became domesticated because it was to their advantage; they essentially gave up the usual wild skittish adult behavior and kept their kittenish behavior throughout their lives, in return for the vastly increased food availability around humans. Pigs... I don't recall just what quirk it was that made them domesticable; something to do with their intelligence. In any event, the article noted that nearly every species that could be domesticated has been, with a few exceptions.
That said, the POD here isn't all that huge... change the herd structure of buffalo so they can be domesticated. Would the NA be really so far behind? It's thought they came to the Americas 20,000 years ago or more... were the Europeans ahead of them in terms of agriculture and livestock?

If we went back far enough and changed buffalo`s herd structure so they are domesticable, I`m pretty sure that Native American culture would be pretty much up to European standards at the time of First Contact (let`s put it at about the same time, 1500 A.D.), give or take a hundred years or so. I read something a while ago that said that an America devoid of outside contact would reach Europe`s standard in 1500 in the year 5445 AD, or around then. Considering that`s a good three and a half thousand years from now, a good alternate history can`t really be created that delays European contact with the Americas four thousand years. So to get the Americans up to European levels, a good domesticable animal is needed about when they got here 20,000 years ago.

How would the Americas develop from here?

David:
What were the exceptions we still can domesticate? Do you remember?

See

For those interested in the explanation for why buffalo and zebras can't be domesticated, see Jared Diamonds: Guns, Germs and Steel. It's a great book.

Tom> sorry, it's been a loooong time since I read it. IIRC, they theorized that tapirs might be domesticable, although nobody has tried it... just don't recall any others....

Yes, Diamond does present a good argument as to why the American Bison would be difficult, if not impossible, to domesticate. BTW, the European equivalent to the American Bison is not the Auroch, but the Wisent - the animal which looks just like the bison and shows up on paleolithic cave paintings and survives only zoos and nature preserves today. The Wisent was never domesticated in the old world which suggests that the American Bison would also be undomesticable.

Dave:
Thanks!
I only got one hit on Google for this topic, here is the excerpt:
DOMESTICATION OF TAPIRS: About 1971 I got a letter from an American (?)
who was trying to get a grant to go to South America and figure out a way to
domesticate tapirs like cattle, for food. I have the letter somewhere, but
didn't find it just now. I have no idea if he ever got the grant. I can see
some problems, though. Tapirs fight a lot more than cattle and are much
harder to manage. They can attack humans, too. I wouldn't even THINK of
trying to herd them! They don't naturally live in herds, and don't have a
"herd mentality." Interesting question, but the letter I mentioned is the
only time I've personally heard of someone thinking of domesticating them in
a ranch-type situation.

People in the tapirs' native countries will keep individuals to fatten them
up for food, though, and there are tapirs in a number of zoos (or the
descendants of these tapirs) that got there because someone bought them
before they were eaten. In the other sense of domestication - taming - some
are pretty tame and others can be extremely dangerous. The bottom line is,
you need to know your individual animal and to be very careful around them.
They're often unpredictable. They're big, heavy and strong, have powerful
jaws and teeth, and they can move very fast.

Sheryl

I've decided to revive this ancient post, because this topic is very interesting to me... I was thinking the other day, why couldn't the Native Americans have domesticated the elk, the caribou, or the moose? Didn't people in northern Eurasia domesticate the reindeer?

Same thing with social structure I believe- IIRC members of the deer families are far too agile and nervous or something of the sort.

I'd just like to bring up something that nobody addressed below

Given the POD that Bison etc. are domesticable, the Native Americans are going to have their own suite of communicable diseases that are going to hit the Europeans just as hard as smallpox etc did them.

Buffalo are NOT cattle. You CAN'T domesticate them. Saying they are genitally similar to cattle makes it possible doesn't make it doable. Can you teach a Chimp (99% similar genitally) or a Bonobo (99.8% similar gentically) to Speak English, use a computer, post to AH.com? Of course not. Why? They are different species.

It is unfortunate that this is the case. As was already pointed out, domesticated animals would have given the New World some equality in the diease game when the Europeans showed up.

I seem to recall that is is actually possible to communicate with chimps, gorillas and parrots if they are sufficiently rigourously trained. Sign language in the case of the first two, and speech for the second. However, that's incidental to the question. Since the above PoD is that they are domesticable, we don't need to worry.