Human uses of living things used; and as symbols or concepts through totemism and animism. More recently, anthropologists have also seen living things as participants in human social interactions. This article describes the roles played by living things in human culture, so defined. The human population exploits and depends on a large number of animal and plant species for food, mainly through agriculture, an essential component of human culture, but also by exploiting wild populations, notably of marine fish. Livestock animals are raised for meat across the world; they include (2011) around 1.4 billion cattle, 1.2 billion sheep and 1 billion domestic pigs. Plants provide
Human uses of living things In Buddhist symbolism, both the lotus and the Bodhi Tree are significant. The lotus is one of the Ashtamangala (eight auspicious signs) shared between Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism, representing the primordial purity of body, speech, and mind, floating above the muddy waters of attachment and desire. The Bodhi Tree is the sacred fig tree under which the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment; the name is also given to other Bodhi trees thought to have been propagated from the original tree. Human uses of living things Human uses of living things, including animals plants, fungi, and microbes, take many