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Anthropology

<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Humans interact with and relate to animal species that live in the wild as well as those that depend on them for their survival. Animals that are dependent on human beings are typically the result of <OpenstaxTerm>domestication</OpenstaxTerm>. Evidence suggests that early humans quickly developed a clear understanding of how selective breeding works, encouraging animals that shared preferred characteristics to mate and produce offspring. These desired traits included a calm temperament; the ability to get along with <OpenstaxTerm>conspecifics</OpenstaxTerm>, or members of one’s own species; usually a smaller body so that the animal could be gathered or herded in larger numbers; and an attachment to or tolerance of humans.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00003" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/feaa1342f382c01962bd18e8dac0747dcc0e0d1b" alt="Eleven Siberian Huskey dogs pull a man riding on a small sled across a snow-covered landscape." mediaType="image/jpeg" width="750" height="451" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="750">
	Figure 18.4 Dogs were among the earliest domesticated animals. Here, Siberian huskies race in a dogsledding event. Across cultures, dogs have been used for pulling and hauling loads. (credit: “Frauenwald, Hundeschlittenrennen, 6” by Rainer Lippert, edited by Ritchyblack/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The <OpenstaxTerm>dog</OpenstaxTerm> (<OpenstaxEm>Canis lupus familiaris</OpenstaxEm>) is believed to have been among the earliest animal domesticates, possibly the first. The origins of the domesticated dog are controversial. Most scientists agree that dogs originated from wolves, particularly from the subspecies <OpenstaxEm>Canis lupus pallipes</OpenstaxEm> (Indian wolf) and <OpenstaxEm>Canis lupus lupus</OpenstaxEm> (Eurasian wolf). The wide variety among dog breeds indicates that other wolf subspecies were also involved in selective breeding, making today’s dogs animal hybrids.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Wolves have various natural instincts that make them excellent candidates for domestication. They are highly social scavengers who could easily have become accustomed to human settlements and food handouts at a young age, and they have a hierarchical social structure that includes status and submission within the pack, traits that would predispose them to conforming to human direction and domination. Dogs today vary genetically by only about 0.2 percent from some of their ancestral wolf subspecies.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Historically and cross-culturally, humans benefit in many ways from their relationships with dogs:
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxUl>
	<OpenstaxLi>
		<OpenstaxEm>Guarding and protection.</OpenstaxEm> Dogs are naturally territorial and highly social; they are both biologically and behaviorally prone to be keenly aware of their physical surroundings and their group (or pack). The impulse to guard and protect is a genetic trait that was easily manipulated in the species as humans selectively bred animals that were particularly loyal to their families and attentive to their property. As part of the domestication process, humans selected for dogs who exhibited a <OpenstaxEm>bark-howl</OpenstaxEm> response when alerted, with the result that domesticated dogs bark when concerned or excited. Among wolves, the bark is only used as an initial alert (Yin 2002). Wolves do not call attention to themselves as dogs do.
	</OpenstaxLi>
	<OpenstaxLi>
		<OpenstaxEm>Hunting.</OpenstaxEm> Descended as it is from a wild predator, the domestic dog can be an excellent hunter and retriever. A trained dog offers considerable benefits to humans in the hunting of prey. Some Indigenous groups, such as the <OpenstaxTerm>Chono</OpenstaxTerm> of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, trained their dogs to dive and to fish for seals. The Tahltan people of Canada used dogs on bear hunts. In czarist Russia, borzoi dogs were used to hunt for wolves.
	</OpenstaxLi>
	<OpenstaxLi>
		<OpenstaxEm>Herding.</OpenstaxEm> Dogs were key to the development of pastoralism, a subsistence system based on herding animals. Many pastoral societies utilized dogs as shepherds for domesticated herds of sheep, goats, cattle, and even fowl. Once trained to identify and protect its herd, a dog can be a fierce defender of and guide for animals foraging away from human settlements. Trained herding dogs can shepherd their flocks on a consistent trail without constant human surveillance. Selective breeding moderated a natural instinct in dogs referred to as <OpenstaxEm>eye-stalk-chase-bite</OpenstaxEm>, a sequence of steps utilized by dogs to focus on another animal when hunting. This moderated instinct enables dogs to guide and protect another species by keeping the animals rounded up and moving away from danger. While not utilized by every pastoral society, dogs are considered vital to most pastoral societies, even today (see the Ethnographic Sketch at the end of the chapter).
	</OpenstaxLi>
	<OpenstaxLi>
		<OpenstaxEm>Transportation.</OpenstaxEm> Historically, dogs served as beasts of burden, especially in cultures that had no larger domesticated animals such as the horse, donkey, or cow. Many Indigenous peoples used dogs to carry young children or possessions. Among North American Indigenous cultures such as the <OpenstaxTerm>Assiniboine</OpenstaxTerm>, <OpenstaxTerm>Apache</OpenstaxTerm>, and <OpenstaxTerm>Inuit</OpenstaxTerm>, dogs were traditionally used for transportation. Some of these groups developed specialized technology, such as the travois and the sledge, that allowed them to harness a dog to a platform loaded with items to be moved.
	</OpenstaxLi>
</OpenstaxUl>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00004" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/90781178ddd18b68cfbf2f95729fbb7a973bd1d1" alt="Three women wearing long skirts, shawls, and broad-brimmed hats stand beside their dogs. The dogs have loaded platforms strapped to their backs." mediaType="image/jpeg" width="800" height="631" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="800">
	Figure 18.5 Kainai women use dog travois, constructed of two shafts lashed to a platform, to carry their possessions. This photo was taken around 1910 in what is now southern Alberta, Canada. (credit: “Kainai Women and Dog Travois” by Provincial Archives of Alberta/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxUl>
	<OpenstaxLi>
		<OpenstaxEm>Meat.</OpenstaxEm> In some cultures, domesticated dogs offer a dependable source of meat. Some of the earliest evidence of dog eating was found at a prehistoric rock shelter site located at Hinds Cave, Texas. At the Hinds Cave site, geneticist Raul <OpenstaxTerm>Tito</OpenstaxTerm> and his team identified domesticated dog remains in human <OpenstaxTerm>coprolites</OpenstaxTerm> (fossilized feces) dating to 9260 BP. From the Preclassic through the late Postclassic period (2000 BCE–1519 CE) in what is now Mexico, various Indigenous cultures, including the <OpenstaxTerm>Olmec</OpenstaxTerm>, <OpenstaxTerm>Zapotec</OpenstaxTerm>, <OpenstaxTerm>Aztec</OpenstaxTerm>, and <OpenstaxTerm>Maya</OpenstaxTerm>, raised and consumed dogs as a source of protein (Thompson 2008), eventually developing a hairless breed of dog known today as the <OpenstaxTerm>Xoloitzcuintli</OpenstaxTerm>. This breed existed when the Spanish arrived in Mexico in the 16th century.
	</OpenstaxLi>
</OpenstaxUl>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00005" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/c62531180b382077e422a10e800e730441f953d1" alt="A small dog, with no hair, sits near a bucket outside a house." mediaType="image/jpeg" width="800" height="533" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="800">
	Figure 18.6 The Xoloitzcuintli is a hairless dog first bred in Mexico. (credit: “MX MM XOLOITZCUINTLE” Milton Martínez/Secretariat of Culture of Mexico City/flickr, CC BY 2.0)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Although dogs are primarily pets in contemporary societies, they continue to play other important roles in a wide range of human activities. As just a few examples, dogs are used as drug detectives at airports, therapy animals for a wide range of human needs, and guides and helpers for those living with physical challenges. Dogs also continue to be used as shepherds, hunting companions, and guards.
</OpenstaxParagraph>

18.1.3 A Case Study: Domestication of Dogs

1 What Is Anthropology?

1.1 The Study of Humanity, or "Anthropology Is Vast"

1.1.1 The Heart of Anthropology: Central Narrative and Commitments

1.1.2 Central Commitment #1: Exploring Sociocultural Diversity

1.1.3 Central Commitment #2: Understanding How Societies Hold Together

1.1.4 Central Commitment #3: Examining the Interdependence of Humans and Nature

1.2 The Four-Field Approach: Four Approaches within the Guiding Narrative

1.2.1 Biological Anthropology

1.2.2 Archaeology

1.2.3 Cultural Anthropology

1.2.4 Linguistic Anthropology

1.2.5 How the Four Fields Work Together: The Example of Race

1.3 Overcoming Ethnocentrism

1.3.1 Enculturation and Ethnocentrism

1.3.2 Primitivism and Orientalism

1.4 Western Bias in Our Assumptions about Humanity

1.4.1 Primitivism and Orientalism in Popular Culture

1.4.2 The Bias of Backwardness

1.5 Holism, Anthropology’s Distinctive Approach

1.5.1 Society as an Integrated Whole

1.5.2 Sources of Contradiction, Conflict, and Change

1.6 Cross-Cultural Comparison and Cultural Relativism

1.6.1 Relativism Is Not “Anything Goes”

1.6.2 Morality, Activism, and Cultural Relativism

1.7 Reaching for an Insider’s Point of View

1.7.1 The Challenge of Representing Others

1.7.2 Collaborative Methods of Representation

1.7.3 Working across Cultures toward Common Goals

1.7.4 Suggested Readings

2 Methods: Cultural and Archaeological

2.1 Archaeological Research Methods

2.1.1 Archaeological Techniques

2.1.2 Archaeological Dating Methods

2.2 Conservation and Naturalism

2.2.1 Early Efforts

2.2.2 Salvage Anthropology

2.2.3 Museum Collections

2.2.4 Interpretation and Voice

2.3 Ethnography and Ethnology

2.3.1 The Development of Ethnography and Ethnology

2.3.2 Perspective and Interpretation in Ethnography

2.4 Participant Observation and Interviewing

2.4.1 Participant Observation

2.4.2 Interviewing Informants

2.4.3 Ethical Considerations

2.5 Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis

2.5.1 Differences between Quantitative and Qualitative Information

2.5.2 Modeling

2.5.3 The Science of Anthropology

2.6 Collections

2.6.1 Archives

2.6.2 Three-Dimensional Collections

2.6.3 Ownership

2.6.4 Suggested Readings

3 Culture Concept Theory: Theories of Cultural Change

3.1 The Homeyness of Culture

3.2 The Winkiness of Culture

3.3 The Elements of Culture

3.3.1 Culture Is What We Make

3.3.2 Culture Is What We Do

3.3.3 Culture Is What We Think

3.4 The Aggregates of Culture

3.4.1 Symbols

3.4.2 Ritual

3.4.3 Social Structure

3.5 Modes of Cultural Analysis

3.5.1 Evolution, Adaptation, and Historical Particularism

3.5.2 Functionalism

3.5.3 Structuralism

3.5.4 Ontology

3.6 The Paradoxes of Culture

3.6.1 Paradox 1: Culture Is Continuous, but It Changes

3.6.2 Paradox 2: Culture Is Bounded but Mobile

3.6.3 Paradox 3: Culture Is Consensual but Contested

3.6.4 Paradox 4: Culture Is Shared, but It Varies

3.6.5 Suggested Readings

4 Biological Evolution and Early Human Evidence

4.1 What Is Biological Anthropology?

4.1.1 Looking to the Deep Past

4.1.2 Exploring What It Means to Be Human

4.2 What’s in a Name? The Science of Taxonomy

4.2.1 Defining the Science of Taxonomy

4.2.2 Defining a Species

4.3 It’s All in the Genes! The Foundation of Evolution

4.3.1 The Units of Life

4.3.2 Gregor Mendel and the Laws of Heredity

4.3.3 Mendelian Inheritance in Humans

4.4 Evolution in Action: Past and Present

4.4.1 Early Evolutionists and the Fixity of Species

4.4.2 Charles Darwin’s Role in Changing Views of the Natural World

4.4.3 Understanding Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

4.5 What Is a Primate?

4.5.1 What Is a Primate?

4.5.2 Primate Behavioral Variation

4.5.3 Explaining Primate Success

4.5.4 Primate Classification and Taxonomy

4.6 Origin of and Classification of Primates

4.6.1 Understanding Concepts of Time

4.6.2 Fossils and Dating Methods

Question	Answer
members of the same species.	conspecifics
the selective breeding of a species by humans to create animals better suited to human life.	domestication