Why do we study Genetics? Give its historical background.

(N/A) We study Genetics to understand fundamental biological questions such as:
- Why does an elephant always give birth to a baby elephant and not another animal?
- Why does a mango seed produce only a mango plant?
- Are offspring identical to their parents,or do they show variations?
- Why do siblings sometimes look similar and sometimes very different?
Genetics is the branch of biology that deals with the inheritance and variation of characters from parents to offspring.
Inheritance is the process by which characters are passed from parent to progeny; it is the basis of heredity.
Variation is the degree by which progeny differ from their parents or among members of the same species.
Historical Background:
Humans have known since $8000-1000$ $B.C.$ that sexual reproduction is a cause of variation.
They exploited these natural variations in wild populations to selectively breed organisms with desirable traits.
For example,through artificial selection and domestication from ancestral wild cows,we have developed breeds like the $Sahiwal$ cows in $Punjab$.
Although our ancestors understood the existence of inheritance and variation,they lacked knowledge of the scientific basis behind these phenomena.