• Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
First Dogs: Hunter-Gatherers and Their Canine Companions from Prehistory to the Present

First Dogs: Hunter-Gatherers and Their Canine Companions from Prehistory to the Present

Hardcover

Archaeology

ISBN10: 1032827246
ISBN13: 9781032827247
Publisher: Routledge
Published: Aug 31 2026
Pages: 342
Language: English

First Dogs provides the first comprehensive overview of the relationships between humanity's best friend (and oldest domestic animal) and hunter-gatherers.

The book uses archaeological and anthropological evidence to explore the hunter-gatherer/canine relationship from the beginnings of the domestication process to the present. As well as looking at conventional case studies from the Global North, it also uses examples from Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. The result is an understanding of how hunter-gatherers have lived with dogs that is novel in its thematic reach, its temporal span, and its global range. Having situated previous work on dogs and hunter-gatherers within the broader fields of archaeology and anthropology, the book first explores how, when, and where grey wolves became dogs before tracing their dispersal beyond Eurasia into North America, the tropics, and beyond. Four thematic chapters then consider their roles as hunting aids and transport technologies, as well as how they have been fed, cared for, and thought about by hunter-gatherer populations worldwide. A further chapter explores the canine dimension of European colonialism's impacts on Indigenous peoples since 1492. The emphasis throughout is strongly interdisciplinary, drawing not only on archaeology and anthropology, but also on work in genetics, history, ecology, and linguistics.

1 different editions

Also available

Also from

Mitchell, Peter

Also in

Archaeology