As a relatively new dog owner, one of the most fascinating areas of anthropological research to me is the human-canid connection. I had a beagle growing up, in middle and high school, but was a typically disengaged teenaged owner. Now, however, as the "father" to a German Shepherd-Lab-Border Collie mix, I'm surprised to have developed very strong and personal feelings that unless one owns a dog, in some ways one is not fully human. I don't mean in a biological way, of course, but in an anthropological or sociological way, the same way I feel about having children. To me, that unit of parents-children-dog seems perfectly balanced, even natural, though I certainly wouldn't criticize anyone for having neither children nor dog (nor for being unmarried, for that fact).
There is a reason, however, that we call dogs "man's best friend." And science has steadily been providing the supporting evidence to understand what that really means. It is closer to being proved that the human-dog relationship did in fact help make us human. A brand-new book by Penn State anthropologist Pat Shipman, The Invaders, makes that case that a homo sapiens--wolf-dog alliance during the late Pleistocene Era helped ensure the survival of modern humans, and thereby of human civilization.
The book is primarily an attempt to answer the question why did the Neanderthals go extinct in Eurasia, thereby leaving the recently-arrived Homo sapiens as the only hominin on earth? Shipman's argument turns in no small part on the partnership between two apex predators: early humans and wolf-dogs. This allowed for more efficient and lethal hunting, which benefited both species, and permanently altered Eurasia's ecosystem.
I will be doing a full review of the book for The Claremont Review of Books later this year, but for now, I walk my dog in full appreciation that we are carrying on an alliance that may be as old as 40,000 years.
There is a reason, however, that we call dogs "man's best friend." And science has steadily been providing the supporting evidence to understand what that really means. It is closer to being proved that the human-dog relationship did in fact help make us human. A brand-new book by Penn State anthropologist Pat Shipman, The Invaders, makes that case that a homo sapiens--wolf-dog alliance during the late Pleistocene Era helped ensure the survival of modern humans, and thereby of human civilization.
The book is primarily an attempt to answer the question why did the Neanderthals go extinct in Eurasia, thereby leaving the recently-arrived Homo sapiens as the only hominin on earth? Shipman's argument turns in no small part on the partnership between two apex predators: early humans and wolf-dogs. This allowed for more efficient and lethal hunting, which benefited both species, and permanently altered Eurasia's ecosystem.
I will be doing a full review of the book for The Claremont Review of Books later this year, but for now, I walk my dog in full appreciation that we are carrying on an alliance that may be as old as 40,000 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment