Chapter I is a general survey of different theories on the origins of animal husbandry. Here the evolution of the «Three stages of man» theory is analysed and the reasons it was given up are argued. At the end of the XlXth century two new approaches were formulated. One of them was stimulated by the works of Ed. Tylor who believed that agriculture and animal husbandry had been each developed independently. Many of Tylor’s followers affirmed that the earliest animal husbandry was nomadic in character. The second approach was advanced by Ed. Hahn who stressed the interaction of early forms of agriculture and animal husbandry. He and his supporters considered nomadism to be the most specialized form of animal husbandry born only relatively recently. The problem of the causes of animal domestication was also treated in different ways. Most workers in the social sciences tried to resort to one or another of four theories in search for explanation: the economic theory, the theory of pets, the theory of symbiosis, the religious theory. V. G. Childe and some other authors ascribed the origin of food production to the influences of climatic events.

The pioneering works of soviet biologists headed by N. I. Vavilov elaborated the idea of primary and secondary centres of the origin of food-producing economy. This idea has greatly influenced the evolution of the science and even now its importance can hardly be overestimated.

The problem in question became one of the most significant ones after the World War II owing to archeological investigations in different primary centres of food production (the Near East, South-East Asia, East Asia, Africa, Mesoamerica, South America) and to the development of new theoretic approaches and concepts both in archeology and ethnology.

Chapter II contains an analysis of archaeological data on the origins of animal husbandry. A main source for researches into the early history of animal husbandry is osteological material. Unfortunately we at present lack any unified method of examining such data. Therefore an interpretation of palaeozoological materials must be done very carefully.

Early productive economy had been developing during the period of serious climatic fluctuations, which must be taken into account. The most significant ones took place at the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene c. 15 000—8 000 B. C. Then a slow rise of temperature followed during the IX–IV mill. B. C. The Near East was one of the most important centres of the origin of animal husbandry. Here one could find such wild ancestors of domesticated animals as the bezoar goat (Capra aegagrus), the Asiatic moufflon (Ovis orientalis), the aurochs (Bos primigenius) and the wild boar (Sus scrofa). The inhabitants of the Zagros Mountains domesticated dogs at the end of Upper Palaeolithic. The domestication of other animals was interconnected with the development of intensive food gathering, which led to the emergence of agriculture, and with sedenterization. Goats and sheep were domesticated in the Zagros Mountains around the IX mill. B. C. Agriculture and animal husbandry appeared in Anatolia iby the IX–VIII mill. B. C. and domesticated goats and sheep were introduced to Syria and Palestine during the VIII mill. B. C. Aurochs was domesticated in Anatolia around the VIII mill. B. C. and cattle spread widely in the Near East in a millennium. Pig raising arose by the VIII mill. B. C., but it hardly played an important role in aboriginal neolithic economy.

Our knowledge of the appearence of the productive economy in the Caucasus is far from satisfactory. Agriculture and animal husbandry seem to have arisen here around the VII mill. B. C. Apparently this process was partly promoted by influences from the Near East.

The emergence of food production to the south and east of the Caspian Sea appears to be interconnected with some migrations from the west, during the VII mill. B. C.

Agriculture and animal husbandry arose in South Asia also as a result of the complex processes linked with both autochthonic development and influences from more developed peoples. The latter has already infiltrated into South Baluchistan during the VII mill. B. C., but they penetrated the Indus valley and Central India much later, around the V–IV mill. B. C. The process of domestication continued here and included buffalo and local species of wild boar.

Aboriginal economic systems were greatly transformed in Europe at the beginning of the Holocene, but this didn’t lead to the birth of productive economy. The native peoples succeeded in domesticating the dog only in a few regions and the wild boar seems to have been domesticated in the Middle Danube. Relatively developed agricultural and animal husbandry cultures emerged in the Balkans around the VIII–VII mill. B. C. owing to the infiltration of small groups from Anatolia. The domesticated cap-rines were introduced by the latter, but the aurochs might have been domesticated right in the Balkahs.

Agriculture and animal husbandry spread in the most part of Europe during VII–III mill. B. C. Last of all they expanded to Scandinavia and the woodlands of East Europe.

The recent investigations in North-East Africa confirmed the idea of a local independent birth of agriculture aroung the VIII–VII mill. B. C. But Africa lacked wild ancestors of domesticated goats and sheep. Therefore the discovery of the bones of these animals in the neolithic layers of North Africa and Sahara clearly testifies to their importation from elsewhere. Aurochs however could have been domesticated just here.

Animal husbandry (and agriculture?) spread in North Africa and Sahara during the V–III mill. B. C. The food-producers began their expansion to the south around the III Mill. B. C. They reached the South Africa by the end of the I mill. B. C and in the course of A. D. I–II mill, the local Khoisahs were adopting livestock.

The late Hoabinhians of South-East Asia turned into food producers by the VI (VII?) mill. B. C. They grew rootcro.ps and rice and domesticated local species of wild boar and bovines (gaur and banteng). They seem to have domesticated also the water buffalo.

Another type of food-producing economy (millet, pig, dog) was developed in North China, Mongolia, Manchuria and the Middle Amur region. The earliest neolithic sites here were dated to c. 5000–3000 B. C. There are some reasons to look for the origin of these cultures partly in South China.

An important primary centre of food production in America emerged in the Andes c. 7000–3000 B. C., where guanaco and guinea pig were domesticated.

Chapter III deals with the relevance of ethnographic sources to the study of the early history of animal husbandry. Here some ethnographic models are analysed.

The primitive hunters and food-gatherers were already able to tame some animals. But this taming didn’t automatically turn into animal husbandry for such transformation demanded more stable material conditions. The latter were growing up among the sedentary fishing and food-gathering groups and especially they were inherent to early agriculturalists.

The direct dependence of pig-raising upon the intensity of agriculture was manifested in New Guinea. Here the process of domestication of animals has been traced. The pigs were embedded in some of the most critical and exciting parts of life of the Papuans. They were precious for reciprocal exchange, for personal prestige-seekings and tokens of status, for brides and alliances and so on. The «Pig Feast» appears to have been the most important event of the ceremonial cycle.

The prestige relationships connected with pig husbandry were more fully developed elsewhere in Melanesia (Solomon Islands, New Hebrides etc.).

Llamas played in principle the same role in the Andels from the prehistoric times.

The problem of the origin of reindeer-breeding is interesting because of its connections with the idea of the direct transformation of hunters into pastoral nomads. According to recent investigations the most ancient reindeer-breeding was born in South Siberia by the I mill. B. C. The reindeer seems to have been domesticated by the Samoyed animal husbandry men. Later reindeer-breeding spread to the north in several waves thanks to both interethnic contacts and direct migrations of some Samoyed and Tungus groups. It promoted the processes of social differentiation everywhere.