Evolution and Human Will

When Mankind domesticated the Wheat or the Cow we like to think a ready made Man surveyed the world and brought various useful animals under their command.

But this is not what happened.

Seeds must have been a good source of food for fledgling Mankind and humans with increased Amylase enzyme were better able to extract the sugars from the starch. Humans began to evolve to specialise on starch and seeds.

At the same time we socially evolved to stop wandering after herds of animals and to spend time in the grasses fields that were starting to supply more of our food.

As Humans evolved to be more stationary they started to take seeds back to their dwellings, and at some point had the genius idea of resowing a proportion to ensure a future harvest. This then gave an evolutionary advantage to the harvested grains over the naturally dispersing grains.

Harvested grass varieties then naturally evolved not to disperse seeds naturally but keep the seeds on the stalks until humans harvested them.

Exactly like insects and flowers co-evolving Humans and Grasses co-evolved so that now certain grasses like wheat and rice cover the planet, just as the humans that coevolved with them.

So it was not the case that a ready made Man brought grasses into control, bur rather that Man and Grass evolved together to form a symbiotic organism.

Certainly this is how another sentient species would see it. But because Human's have a tendency to see things from their own perspective the mutual relationship between humans and grass is misunderstood.

Chimpanzees and Bonobos, our closest relatives, did not undergo this co-evolution with grasses and they do not have the elevated amylase levels of humans, and more importantly never evolved the static dwellings and farming practices that dominate modern human life.