I think you're being a little too simplistic. They bred animals and crop plants for certain traits (dogs, sheep, etc.) They knew that physical traits of both parents could be passed to the children. OK they didn't know of sperm and eggs, but the concept of "seed" certainly shows some concept of heredity.
BTW - sperm first seen by Anonie van Leeuwenhoek. I can't remember what he said about them, but I'll look it up if anyone but me is interested.
Grrrrrr......
Some folks speculate that humans did not realize the correlation between sex and pregnancy until they began to domesticate animals. If you live in a society where all women have sex -- voluntarily or involuntarily -- it would be difficult to make the connection.
<< I think you're being a little too simplistic. They bred animals and crop plants for certain traits (dogs, sheep, etc.) They knew that physical traits of both parents could be passed to the children. OK they didn't know of sperm and eggs, but the concept of "seed" certainly shows some concept of heredity. >>
You're right, although there were some interesting side-trails. There's the biblical story in Genesis 30, where Jacob used a rather -- um -- unique breeding technique:
<< 37 Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. 38 Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, 39 they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. 40 Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban's animals. 41 Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches, 42 but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. >>
I guess Mendel missed some details!