Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Lucky day inquiry - All the history of cats

All the history of cats

Unlike dogs, cats are self-domesticated animals.

Dogs were able to adapt to human life at first because their social behaviors matched human beings in many ways.

Cats are different from humans. They are solitary hunters with fixed territory, and most of them are active at night. However, it was their hunting behavior that first brought cats into contact with human environment, and their strong instinct to protect territory drove them to appear in the same place.

The history of domesticating cats is much later than that of dogs.

This period may not be earlier than 7000 BC, when crescent-shaped rice granaries were formed in the Middle East due to the prosperity of agriculture.

The appearance of houses, barns and grain shops provides a new living environment for small mammals such as mice, which are just the ideal prey for small wild cats.

From the beginning, people and cats have established a mutually beneficial relationship: cats get rich food sources, while humans get rid of annoying rodents.

At first, the existence of these wild cats may not be accepted or even encouraged by humans, and some food will be thrown from time to time.

Just like wolves, some tame wild cats were gradually absorbed into human society, resulting in the earliest semi-domesticated cats.

It is almost certain that domestic cats are descendants of all small wildcats in Europe, Africa and South Asia.

In this vast area, according to the local environment and climate conditions, countless sub-populations of wild cats have evolved.

Their appearances are different. European wildcats living in the north have strong bodies, short ears and thick fur. African wildcats are more slender, with long ears and long legs; Asian wildcats living in the south are small and spotted.

The original ancestor of domestic cats is probably African wildcats, because African wildcats are only slightly bigger than domestic cats and have a gentler temperament than other wildcats.

African wildcats often appear near human settlements, are easy to domesticate and are often kept as pets by local residents.

After domestic cats are brought around the world, they may mate with local wild cats and become the ancestors of modern domestic cats in different regions.

At present, the fur lines of European domestic cats with dark stripes have the characteristics of both European wild cats and African wild cats, while the spots on domestic cats living in India indicate that their ancestors are related to Asian wild cats.

The hybridization between domestic cats and other wild cat breeds, such as jungle cats, is unlikely to have a significant impact on the mainstream breeds of domestic cats.

After thousands of generations of reproduction, the physiological changes caused by domestication have also occurred in cats, similar to dogs.

Including smaller body, shorter claws, smaller brain and cranial cavity, posture of stretching ears and tail, and color and texture of fur have also changed.

However, unlike dogs, cats maintain a great degree of independence in human society, so they rarely form certain behavioral characteristics that human beings need because of selective external pressure.

Therefore, compared with their ancestors, domestic cats have little change in appearance, which is difficult to distinguish in early archaeological discoveries.

The remains of cats have been found near different prehistoric human sites, including the Neolithic site in Israel about 9000 years ago and the Indian Valley site in Pakistan about 4000 years ago.

However, these wrecks are probably wild cats killed for fur or meat.

Interestingly, the remains of cats and mice 8,000 years ago were found on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which can only be brought to the island by human immigrants.

Although these cats may not have been fully domesticated, they were deliberately brought to the island to deal with rodents.

Cats have been domesticated by humans for 3500 years (but not as thoroughly as dogs). Nowadays, cats have become a very widespread pet in families all over the world.

The world's first domestic cat may appear in the Middle East.

According to authoritative experts, as early as 2500 BC, libyca, an African bobcat domesticated by ancient Egyptians, should be the ancestor of the first short-haired domestic cat.

Its posture is very light and its body is covered with tiger-spotted hair.

Judging from the cat sleeve bones dug up from the ancient Egyptian cat tombs, most of them are similar to libyca, and a few are similar to jungle cats and Chaus.

It can be seen that ancient Egypt may have domesticated both Libika and Shaws cats.

It's just that Libyca may be easier to tame! After so many centuries, the cat's body shape has not changed much. Adult cats weigh about 3.6 kilograms and retain their hunting instinct.

Cats in ancient Egypt In ancient times, Egypt was a region rich in grain crops, so there were many grain warehouses.

In order to prevent mice and other small animals from eating stored food, Egyptians like to keep cats to prevent mice, because cats can catch mice.

The ancient Egyptians also revered the contribution of cats, so they did not forget to thank them when offering sacrifices to the gods.

And made an idol for the cat and deified it. This god with a cat's head is called Bast or Pasht Oubasted.

In ancient Egypt, Bast symbolized the meaning of love and the moon.

Cat's love is to protect crops, because it can catch mice and let Egyptians keep their hard-earned crops, so it is regarded as a god to protect crops.

On the other hand, the cat is regarded as the moon god, because the cat's pupil changes with light, just like the moon's circle.

Look at the idol of the cat's head-Baxter, most of the statues, standing straight, smart eyes, as if looking around.

One of them has a fork bell in one hand and a tambourine in the other.

You can look at the picture on the left.

In ancient Egypt, the name of a cat was "mau", which was pronounced as "Meow" in Chinese and "Meow" in English, which may be the sound made by a cat.

Mau also means "look".

Egyptians believe that cats that don't blink not only have the ability to know the truth, but also see the afterlife.

Therefore, buster is also the "daughter of truth" god. After death, Buster will also appear in the mummy ceremony to ensure the afterlife of the deceased.

From what has been said above, we can know how much the ancient Egyptians respected cats.

Cats played an important role in the life of ancient Egyptians.

Most people mourn their cat after it dies.

And the cat's body is well preserved with spices and antiseptic drugs.

After choosing an auspicious day, put it in a sacred cave.

So now in Egypt, we can see many cat mummies, which are still intact after so many years.

The picture on the right shows a cat mummy.

Cats in medieval Europe ~ Egypt, although there were laws, it was forbidden to transport cats abroad.

But Phoenician sailors still secretly smuggled cats out of the country.

According to the description of ancient paintings, cats are regarded as treasures, which have been brought from the Middle East to the Mediterranean.

The Romans were the first people to bring cats to Great Britain.

In medieval Europe, the Black Death was caused by plague, and cats were deeply grateful for their ability to catch mice.

This knife cuts bread and fingers.

Cats accustomed to night activities also made people a little scared at that time, thinking that they were related to the mysterious power of evil.

The witch people are afraid of seems to be related to cats.

Cats always appear in witchcraft ceremonies.

Even at the end of19th century, there were rumors that farmers claimed to see witches incarnate as black cats.

But in the Renaissance, the status of cats turned over again.

Everyone in the world is happy to keep cats as family pets, from princes and nobles to vendors and pawns.

Cats were the first domestic cats introduced to South America in the United States, because the early pioneers wanted to use cats to control the harm of rodents to crops.