The importance of the cow
The cow is the animal that has most certainly influenced the style of human life and its evolution, is an animal that gives milk (and also cheese and dairy products that can be kept longer), meat, hides and skin, and that has fueled the men since the dawn of domestication.
But let's take a step back and look back along the path of our cattle that Bos primigenius (l 'uro) has become Bos tarus , and free and wild animal that has changed in a domestic and placid giant (I mean giant even though many breeds are higher than 120 cm, but speaking of old cattle occurs to me that the Chianina with its 150 sometimes even 180 cm in height from the withers is certainly the good ' Images of animals large and impressive).
Already more than 20,000 years ago there were big cattle, and even then they were certainly very important for the people of the time. Disproving the myth that man "primitive" was a naked ape in poor barely able to hunt, we can take into account examples of art in the cave Lussac , where the cattle are not just paintings of hunting scenes, so how representation of reality, but also with symbolic meaning. Some theories suggest fact that the cave Lussac present a real star map, where you play the constellation of the bull.
but must wait for the domestication the sixth millennium BC ie about 12,000 years later than in Mesopotamia. Curious coincidence if you think that just comes from Mesopotamia, the first and most important civilizations in history, which will affect all peoples to come. course not only in Mesopotamia began breeding cattle, but also separately in India (another great cradle of civilization) and partly in Africa. It must be said that the development of these peoples is not so random, but follows a common need: the search for food.
Cattle were certainly easier and more productive animal breeding of the time, in fact were: herbivores (so they could convert a resource is not exploitable by humans such as cellulose into energy that is available meat), animals after all peaceful ( or at least most peaceful of zebra, wildebeest, etc.) and managed to be kept in pens (you try it with a gazelle or an elephant).
In many cultures the importance of cattle has not changed, just think of the Hindu religion , where the cow is sacred, or the cult of Mithra, where the bull is the symbol of fertility and gives rise to all the other animals and all plants. The short man
depended and still depends on this wonderful animal, who should be thanked every day for what it gives us and what he has given us. Remember so when we drink milk, eat a steak, put on a pair of boots or do all these things together that the cow has its own dignity, which we define as the animal "pet" , che secondo la definizione vuol dire animale che dipende per la sua sopravvivenza anche riproduttiva totalmente dall'uomo (concetto diverso da addomesticato appunto ), in realtà è un animale che ha addomesticato un po' anche noi, o con un neologismo ci ha " stabulizzato ", ci ha cioè permesso di sopravvivere e ci ha dato modo di creare questo speciale legame che ci ha reso i signori della nostra epoca.
