Domestication of the Dog
Today's dogs serve as a number of different tools. We train dogs to see for the blind, we train them to sniff for drugs, we train them to save people's lives, and we train them to be our faithful companions. There is no doubt that the dog has a wide variety of skills and jobs. We selectively breed the dog to gain the certain attributes we are seeking, and we know which dogs will perform the best at what we want them to do. The question is how long ago, and why did the dog become our aids, tools, and companions? Answering this question means dealing with the four fields of Anthropology: Ethnologically, Archaeologically, Physically, and Linguistically. The most obvious way to learn about the past of the dog species, is to treat it the same way we treat ancient societies. Archaeologists study where they once were, look at their remains. Where they lived, what they looked like, and how they changed over time. An example of using the Archaeological field of Anthropology would be the excavation of the Roman city, Pompeii, which was destroyed by the volcano Vesuvius in AD 79. When finally excavated, searchers found the remains of a dog lying across a child, apparently trying to protect him. By looking at this individual skele
This also ties into the linguistic field of Anthropology, where the culture is passed on to the children through stories and myths. Another field of Anthropology is the Ethnological aspect of the science. Other archaeological digs have suggested that the relationship between dogs and humans dates to about 14,000 years ago. This site was discovered in 1979 and the bones date back to 12,000 years old but historians believe the dog had been domesticated even a few thousand years before that. Romans also used dogs for military purposes, some as attack dogs, and some as messengers. Physical Anthropology even explores this last point. Instead of gathering the information over multiple visits, which would be impossible, we can get the same information we need by looking at the same object, at different points of history. The fossils seem to be a much more widely accepted view. By looking at a culmination of the fossils we have, it not only adds to a holistic approach to the problem, but it also gives us a longitudinal study of a very old question. The wide diversity in breeds that we witness today comes from selective breeding as well as natural genetic mutations in the five groups. Often, these answers can solve very important questions that provide explanations to why we live the way we do today. To do this, we look at fossilized remains that we are able to date. htm] (2 October 2000)· Dansie, Amy "Man's Oldest Best Friends: Ancient Dogs in Nevada. So, as one can see, by using these four fields simultaneously, in a holistic method, Anthropologists can paint a very convincing portrait of a question that seems impossible to answer unless someone was there to witness it.
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Acceptance Essays
