... in which we humans have intervened to gain more control over the reproductive functions of the plants and animals that interest us. We selectively breed, protect, and exploit them. One might arguably extend this argument to the early agrarian states and their patriarchal control over the reproduction of women, captives, and slaves. Guillermo Algaze puts the matter even more boldly: "Early Near Eastern villages domesticated plants and animals. Uruk urban institutions, in turn, domesticated humans"

— Against the Grain by James C. Scott (Yale agrarian studies series)