# Domestication, "Neonatism", Humans **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 20, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domestication-neonatism-humans/401000 "2007-04-20T21:14:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Toaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@Toaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toaster)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domestication-neonatism-humans/401000/1 "2007-04-20T21:14:00Z")
I have no idea what the right word is…but I meant “to have features like a baby”. Anyway. A long while back I heard a theory about how when we domesticate at least SOME animals (or all?) we make them more baby-like, and so they look a little different in the skull, and high desire for play even as an adult, and such. (I know sheep and goats and cow-type critters appreciate having toys to play with, so maybe it’s more domesticates than just pets?) I also heard that at least some people wondered if we humans were neonating ourselves, thus an increased desire for play as adults, without a strong tapering off, and IIRC some physical things too that I don’t recall. I’m having issues getting a good googling about this, and thought perhaps the scholarly ones here might know off the top of their heads what the current status is of the idea. I like the idea, but there wasn’t too much information available to me when I first heard of it, and I never saw anything about it again so I am wondering if it was thoroughly discredited in humans/in toto. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2007, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domestication-neonatism-humans/401000/2 "2007-04-20T21:17:51Z")
It’s neoteny, and I believe some pretty credible people have discussed its role in human appearance/development. > **[Neoteny](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny)** > > Neoteny (/niˈɒtəni/), also called juvenilization, is the delaying or slowing of the physiological, or somatic, development of an organism, typically an animal. Neoteny is found in modern humans compared to other primates. In progenesis or paedogenesis, sexual development is accelerated. > Both neoteny and progenesis result in paedomorphism (as having the form typical of children) or paedomorphosis (changing towards forms typical of children), a type of heterochrony. It is the retention in adults o... ---
**Author:** ![Toaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@Toaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toaster)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2007, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domestication-neonatism-humans/401000/3 "2007-04-20T23:26:57Z")
Ahh, thank you so much. Having the right vocabulary word helps a ton, haha. I am glad that human neoteny is not at least widely disparaged, and that Gould was a proponent of it (probably where I heard the idea, too). ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2007, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domestication-neonatism-humans/401000/4 "2007-04-20T23:31:41Z")
[QUOTE=Toaster] I have no idea what the right word is…but I meant “to have features like a baby”. Anyway. A long while back I heard a theory about how when we domesticate at least SOME animals (or all?) we make them more baby-like, and so they look a little different in the skull, and high desire for play even as an adult, and such. [/QUOTE] You’re probably also thinking of the [Fox Domestication Project](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tame_Silver_Fox). People usually cite that in reference to the subject.