Dogs
Domestication and the Development of a Social Bond

Dogs provides a comprehensive account of the origins and development of the domestic dog over the past 15,000 years.

Darcy F. Morey (Author)

9780521760065, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 April 2010

380 pages, 41 b/w illus. 12 tables
23.5 x 15.6 x 2.3 cm, 0.62 kg

"Like a hound on scent, Darcy Morey pursues the dog down the twisting paths of prehistory to its wolf origins and then tracks back through the dense tangle of contemporary genetic and neurological research to show how it came to capture our homes and hearts.  [This book] is a work of love and of intellect that confirms Morey as our foremost dog archaeologist."
-Mark Derr, author, A Dog's History of America and Dog's Best Friend

This book traces the evolution of the dog, from its origins about 15,000 years ago up to recent times. The timing of dog domestication receives attention, with comparisons between different genetics-based models and archaeological evidence. Allometric patterns between dogs and their ancestors, wolves, shed light on the nature of the morphological changes that dogs underwent. Dog burials highlight a unifying theme of the whole book: the development of a distinctive social bond between dogs and people; the book also explores why dogs and people relate so well to each other. Though cosmopolitan in overall scope, the greatest emphasis is on the New World, with an entire chapter devoted to dogs of the arctic regions, mostly in the New World. Discussion of several distinctive modern roles of dogs underscores the social bond between dogs and people.

1. Introduction
2. Immediate ancestry
3. Evidence of dog domestication and its timing: morphological and contextual indications
4. Domestication: of dogs and other organisms
5. The roles of dogs in past human societies
6. Dogs of the arctic, the far north
7. The burial of dogs, and what dog burials mean
8. Why the social bond between dogs and people
9. Other human-like capabilities of dogs
10. Roles of dogs in recent times.

Subject Areas: Zoology: Vertebrates [PSVW], Animal behaviour [PSVP]