Alpaca Breed Standards

A Brief History of Breed Societies

It is significant to note that the modern concept of "breeds" only developed in the 19th Century. It is an invention, born of the English and Continental upper class, and very much rooted in intellectual elitism. During this period the sciences were formed and acquired their great cultural authority. Major transformations occurred across the Victorian period including the change from "natural philosophy" and "natural history" to "science", the shift from gentlemen and clerical naturalists to, professional "scientists", the development and eventual diffusion of belief in natural laws and ongoing progress, secularization, growing interaction between science, government and industry, the formalization of science education, and a growing internationalism of science. The Victorian age witnessed some of the most fundamental transformations of beliefs about nature and the place of humans in the universe, particularly in regards to man's dominance over nature.

The concept of distinct breeds is less than two hundred years old. The idea was founded on the contradictory premises of preservation and progress. Ancient breeds were "discovered" and preserved, even as modern science was employed to improve the breed.

One author writes:

In the early 1800's, the British, having begun the development of "pure" breeds of livestock through inbreeding, applied the same principle to their dogs. By the 1850's, they were writing Standards and holding exhibitions. When a new "breed" was proposed, the fanciers of that breed wrote the Standard to fit the dogs they themselves owned. As the custom spread to the Continent, influential fanciers collected groups of dogs, described them in a Standard, and proclaimed the "discovery" of an "ancient breed". ("Another View of Livestock Guardian Dog History", Catherine de la Cruz, AKC Gazette 4/95)

Which contrasts nicely with this:

This insistence on absolute breed purity arises from nineteenth-century notions of the "superior strain" which were supposedly exemplified by human aristocracies and thoroughbred horses; this same ideal, pushed to an illogical conclusion on the human plane, resulted in the now discredited 'scientific racism' of the Nazis, who tried through selective human matings to breed an Aryan superman. The idea of the superior strain was that by 'breeding the best to the best,' employing sustained inbreeding and selection for 'superior' qualities, one would develop a bloodline superior in every way to the unrefined, base stock which was the best that nature could produce#46;..Certainly towards the close of the nineteenth century it became embarrassingly obvious that the human aristocracies of Europe were degenerating rapidly under their own version of the 'closed studbook.'" (Purebred Dog Breeds into the Twenty-First Century -- Achieving Genetic Health for Our Dogs, J. Jeffrey Bragg 1996)

We can be fairly certain that local shepherd of the Altiplano or the Anatolian plateau did not think in terms of creating or preserving breeds. In a pastoral society, the health and utility of the flocks are of primary importance.

It is vital that we understand this brief history of breed societies and breed standards before moving on to a discussion of the issue of standards themselves.

Now, less than two hundred years since the emergence of breed societies and breed standards, one will be hard pressed to find a working definition of what a "breed" is. The best, perhaps, was written by Jay L. Lush in The Genetics of Populations:

"A breed is a group of domestic animals, termed such by common consent of the breeders, #46;..a term which arose among breeders of livestock, created one might say, for their own use, and no one is warranted in assigning to this word a scientific definition and in calling the breeders wrong when they deviate from the formulated definition. It is their word and the breeders common usage is what we must accept as the correct definition."

In short, there is no scientific basis underlying the term "breed". The idea of distinct breeds of domesticated animals, born in the elitism of Victorian England, has been carried forth for two centuries because it serves the use of the breeders of those animals.

Understanding the history of breed societies in general, and breed standards in particular, we must examine what utility the idea of breeds and the use of breed standards might have. The historical purpose of breed standards was to preserve and improve a particular sub-type of domestic animal by taking measures to prevent the dilution of their genetic base while providing a target (by way of an idealized "standard") for improvement of type. Beyond the stated purpose, breed standards serve to create a perception of rarity and uniqueness that in turn supports "value" - that is monetary value.