The "domestic" cat, Felis silvestris catus, has been with us for nearly 10,000 years. Recently, a 9,500 year old burial of a human and their companion cat was discovered on Cyprus. Cats are not indigenous to the island, so it seems that the presence of this cat must be owed to human intervention in some manner. Though we are used to thinking about how humans shaped cats through selective breeding the recent
data on Toxoplasma gondii
suggests that cats might have an impact on human behavior that could explain cultural differences! Some intellectuals have posited that the selection of companion animals (i.e., cat cultures vs. dog cultures) is reflective of their values, but the irony might be that the animals (cats) might shape those values. A friend once quipped that we did not domesticate the cat, the cat domesticated us. Though functional explanations that cats served to rid agricultural communities ...
