Dogs
Dogs
Archaeology beyond Domestication
Exploring the bond between dogs and humans in case studies from across thousands of years
This volume offers a rich archaeological portrait of the human-canine connection. Contributors investigate the ways people have viewed and valued dogs in different cultures around the world and across the ages. Case studies from North and South America, the Arctic, Australia, and Eurasia present evidence for dogs in roles including pets, guards, hunters, and herders. In these chapters, faunal analysis from the Ancient Near East suggests that dogs contributed to public health by scavenging garbage, and remains from a Roman temple indicate that dogs were offered as sacrifices in purification rites. Essays also chronicle the complex partnership between Aboriginal peoples and the dingo and describe how the hunting abilities of dogs made them valuable assets for Indigenous groups in the Amazon rainforest. The volume draws on multidisciplinary methods that include zooarchaeological analysis; scientific techniques such as dental microwear, isotopic, and DNA analyses; and the integration of history, ethnography, multispecies scholarship, and traditional cultural knowledge to provide an in-depth account of dogs’ lives. Showing that dogs have been a critical ally for humankind through cooperation and companionship over thousands of years, this volume broadens discussions about how relationships between people and animals have shaped our world.
Contributors: Brandi Bethke | Kate Britton | Amanda Burtt | Larisa R.G. DeSantis | Melanie Fillios | Emily Lena Jones | Loukas Koungoulos | Robert Losey | Edouard Masson-Maclean | Ellen McManus-Fry | Victoria Monagle | Victoria Moses | Angela R. Perri | Nerissa Russell | Peter W. Stahl
“A cutting-edge collection. . . . Embraces the intersecting interests of archaeology, animal studies, ethnography, and posthumanism.”—Choice
“Both a useful guide to the techniques and inferences that archaeologists use to piece together the economic value and cultural importance of animals in past societies and a striking illustration of the qualitative and functional diversity of the dog-human partnership across cultures and over time. . . . A valuable resource for anyone interested in dogs and their past relations with humans.”—Journal of Anthropological Research
“Contributes to our understanding of the complex, nuanced, nearly ubiquitous, and lengthy relationship between humans and domesticated dogs. Through the use of cutting-edge technologies and the incorporation of traditional Indigenous knowledge and belief systems, this group of scholars pushes the boundaries of what we can and should be doing with archaeological dog remains.”—Tanya M. Peres, coeditor of The Cumberland River Archaic of Middle Tennessee
“Dogs offers an in-depth and multifaceted focus on the relationship between humans and our best friends. The work of contributors includes archaeology from different time periods and throughout the world. Finally, dogs have a compilation of research worthy of their dynamic histories.”—Christopher P. Barton, coauthor of Historical Racialized Toys in the United States
Brandi Bethke is laboratory director and research faculty at the Oklahoma Archeological Survey at the University of Oklahoma. Amanda Burtt is associate curator with the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology at Indiana University, Bloomington.
Contents List of Figures List of Tables 1. Introduction Brandi Bethke and Amanda Burtt 2. Prehistoric Dogs as Hunting Weapons: The Advent of Animal Biotechnology Angela R. Perri 3. Dog Life and Death in an Ancestral Pueblo Landscape Victoria Monagle and Emily Lena Jones 4. The Archaeology of Dogs at the Precontact Site of Nunalleq, Western Alaska Edouard Masson-Maclean, Ellen McManus-Fry, and Kate Britton 5. Using Dental Microwear to Understand the Dietary Behavior of Domestic Dogs in Precontact North America Amanda Burtt and Larisa R.G. DeSantis 6. Scavenger and Sentry: The Roles of Dogs at Çatalhöyük, Turkey in the Context of the Near Eastern Neolithic Nerissa Russell 7. The Dog Days are Over: The Introduction of the Horse and Its Impact on Human-Dog Relationships among the Blackfoot Brandi Bethke 8. Exotic Dogs and Indigenous Humans in Tropical Northeastern South America Peter W. Stahl 9. Between Ethnography and Prehistory: The Case of the Australian Dingo Loukas Koungoulos and Melanie Fillios 10. Powerful Pups: A Case Study for Dog Sacrifice in Archaic Rome from the Area Sacra di Sant’Omobono Victoria Moses 11. Conclusion: Conceptualizing and Investigating our Relationships with Dogs Robert Losey Index
