Self-domestication or human control? The Upper Palaeolithic domestication of the wolf

Germonpré, Mietje; Lázničková‐Galetová, Martina; Sablin, Mikhail V.; Bocherens, Hervé

doi:10.4324/9781315179988-3

Cited by 27 publications

(62 citation statements)

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“…This passage, in particular, indicates the great complexity involved in the interaction and communication between a hunter and his dog. This intimate and ancient bond between man and dog [62][63][64] is an element without which the local praxis of hunting cannot be well understood, nor its impact on the local fauna [65,66]. The man-dog-deer relationship in the context of hunting will be explored in detail below.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnography, ethnobiology and natural history: narratives on hunting and ecology of mammals among quilombolas from Southeast Brazil

Prado

Silva

Schlindwein

et al. 2020

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

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Background: As a leading practice of Homo sapiens' environmental experience for hundreds of millennia, hunting continues to evoke key research inquiries in the fields of archaeology, human ecology, and conservation biology. Broadly speaking, hunting has been mainly a subject of qualitative-symbolic and quantitative-materialistic schemata of analyze, among anthropologists and biologists, respectively. However, the phenomenological dimension of the hunting experience, in the course of individuals`everyday life, received little academic attention until this century. This study analyzes the daily praxis of hunting among quilombolas (descendants from runaway African slaves) in Southeast Brazil, making use of an ethnographic approach of phenomenological orientation, which dialogue with central ethnobiological issues. The authors also report the local ecological knowledge about mammals hunted in the area, and its relationship to the scientific literature on this subject.Methods: Between 2016 and 2019, the authors made use of participant observation and informal interviews among eight key local participants, in three quilombola communities in the Ribeira Valley (São Paulo, Brazil). Fragments of authors' field notes and parts of interviewers' speeches make up the core results obtained.Results: Articulating local knowledge to scientific literature, this study yielded a hybrid and comprehensive narrative about natural history of the mammals in the area. The authors also accessed elementary aspects of research participants' experience in hunting, such as strategies, tactics, motivations, and feelings. They reveal a set of human behavior dispositions that seems to emerge only in the context of the action, modulating the praxis of hunting on the course of individuals' everyday life.Conclusion: Ethnography, ethnobiology, and natural sciences backgrounds were systematically articulated in this research. This made possible to get a contextualized and multifaceted understanding of hunting praxis in the Ribeira Valley, an important socioenvironmental context of Atlantic Forest in Brazil. The role of an ethnographic approach applied to ethnoecological and biological conservation issues is especially considered here.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnography, ethnobiology and natural history: narratives on hunting and ecology of mammals among quilombolas from Southeast Brazil

Prado

Silva

Schlindwein

et al. 2020

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

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“…Why some wolves integrated into human society is unknown, but canids could have fulfilled many functions in the daily life of Upper Paleolithic peoples (Shipman, 2015;Lupo, 2017;Germonpr� e et al, 2018). Their utility as hunting and working aids, protectors, companions, and food remain reasons for this relationship today.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dog domestication is the earliest example of animal husbandry and the only domestication type thought to occur prior to the advent of agriculture (Clutton-Brock, 1995. It likely began as a series of mutualistic, proto-domestication processes; slow, non-deliberate shifts in the human-canid relationship over millennia (Coppinger and Coppinger, 2001;Galibert et al, 2011;Zeder, 2012;Thalmann et al, 2013;Morey and Jeger, 2015;Germonpr� e et al, 2018). Morphological and genetic data confirm that dogs (Canis familiaris) are descendants of Eurasian grey wolves (Canis lupus) (Wayne, 1986;Tchernov and Horwitz, 1991;Clutton-Brock, 1995;Vila et al, 1997;Coppinger and Coppinger, 2001;Morey and Jeger, 2015).…”

Section: Dog Domesticationmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Human refuse exploitation is a learned behavior seen in free ranging dogs (Vanak and Gompper, 2009;Forsyth et al, 2014), and other canids, including coyotes, foxes and wolves today (Murray et al, 2015;Bateman and Fleming, 2012;Forsyth et al, 2014). It is unclear whether Paleolithic campsites contained enough surplus or refuse to entice invasive wolves (Lupo, 2017;Germonpr� e et al, 2018;Jung and P€ ortl, 2018), but scavenging efficiency of protodogs may have been encouraged as a means of site management by removing refuse from occupation sites (Coppinger and Coppinger, 2001;Russell and Twiss, 2017).…”

Section: Potential Behavioral Differences Related To Dietmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dental microwear as a behavioral proxy for distinguishing between canids at the Upper Paleolithic (Gravettian) site of Předmostí, Czech Republic

Prassack

DuBois

Lázničková‐Galetová

et al. 2020

Journal of Archaeological Science

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Morphological and genetic evidence put dog domestication during the Paleolithic, sometime between 40,000 and 15,000 years ago, with identification of the earliest dogs debated. We predict that these earliest dogs (referred to herein as protodogs), while potentially difficult to distinguish morphologically from wolves, experienced behavioral shifts, including changes in diet. Specifically, protodogs may have consumed more bone and other less desirable scraps within human settlement areas. Here we apply Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (DMTA) to canids from the Gravettian site of P� redmostí (approx. 28,500 BP), which were previously assigned to the Paleolithic dog or Pleistocene wolf morphotypes. We test whether these groups separate out significantly by dietrelated variation in microwear patterning. Results are consistent with differences in dietary breadth, with the Paleolithic dog morphotype showing evidence of greater durophagy than those assigned to the wolf morphotype. This supports the presence of two morphologically and behaviorally distinct canid types at this middle Upper Paleolithic site. Our primary goal here was to test whether these two morphotypes expressed notable differences in dietary behavior. However, in the context of a major Gravettian settlement, this may also support evidence of early stage dog domestication. Dental microwear is a behavioral signal that may appear generations before morphological changes are established in a population. It shows promise for distinguishing protodogs from wolves in the Pleistocene and domesticated dogs from wolves elsewhere in the archaeological record.

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“…Alternatively, was the relationship between dogs and humans a partnership? Were dogs and humans living and "working" together already in ancient times (Brewer et al 2001;Pörtl and Jung 2017;Jung and Pörtl 2018;Germonpré et al 2018…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How old are (Pet) Dog Breeds?

Jung¹,

Pörtl²

2019

Pet Behav Sci

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Dogs are our Pets. Everybody knows dog breeds. A dog is often understood only as a specimen of a breed or a mongrel of several breeds. Some scholars argue, that dog breeds would be created as an artificial product starting 150 years ago in the Victorian era. The original dog would be an uniform dog type called “village dog”, hanging around human settlements while scavenging human waste and faeces. Astonishingly we only find very little research on evolution and history of dog breeds and dog breeding. In our article we will search for evidence. We found many records in history, archaeology and genetics pointing out that dog breeds have a long history likely starting in prehistoric times or at least in antiquity. Dog breeds shape no static monuments over thousands of years. We should understand dog breeds as steadily evolving populations in changing ecologies - like each species. Dogs’ ecological niches were made primarily by human. We are able to identify and clearly differ dogs in breeds, each breed fitting to its special niches. We are using dogs’ different traits since thousands of years. Dogs always had and have their jobs as hunting-, herding-, sledding-partners or as pets. Thus, dogs have been shaped to fit optimally to each job. Eventually, they evolved with their changing jobs in continually evolving human societies. Breeds have not been simply invented. Breeds did not derive artificially during some decades in the Victorian era. Victorian dog breeding culture only switched the focus from the behaviour to the appearance and that mainly with regard to fashion dogs. Even standardized modern purebred dogs on the official shows are continuously changing their traits and appearance following human fashions. Dog breeds may be understood as a reflection of human culture. Understanding the history of dog breeds is helpful for a better understanding of our dogs, the human-dog bonding and ourselves.

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Self-domestication or human control? The Upper Palaeolithic domestication of the wolf

Cited by 27 publications

References 0 publications

Ethnography, ethnobiology and natural history: narratives on hunting and ecology of mammals among quilombolas from Southeast Brazil

Ethnography, ethnobiology and natural history: narratives on hunting and ecology of mammals among quilombolas from Southeast Brazil

Dental microwear as a behavioral proxy for distinguishing between canids at the Upper Paleolithic (Gravettian) site of Předmostí, Czech Republic

How old are (Pet) Dog Breeds?

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