Associação de Amparo aos Animais - Man's best friend? Since when?

Man´s best friend?  Since when?

In the book “Sentiens”, by Yuval Noah Hariri, he writes and I quote:

“What generalisations can we make about life in the pre-agricultural world?... The vast majority of people  lived in small bands numbering several dozen or at most several hundred individuals, and  all these individuals were humans...

There was just one exception to this general rule: the dog.  The dog was the first animal domesticated by Homo Sapiens, and this occurred before the Agricultural Revolution.  Experts disagree about the exact date, but we have incontrovertible evidence of domesticated dogs from about 15,000 years ago.  They may have joined the human pack thousands of years earlier.

Dogs were used for hunting and fighting, and as an alarm system against wild beasts and human intruders.  With the passing of generations, the two species co-evolved to communicate well with each other.  Dogs that were most attentive to the needs and feelings of their human companions got extra care and food and were most likely to survive.  Simultaneously, dogs learned to manipulate people for their own needs.  A 15,000-year bond has yielded a much deeper understanding and affection between humans and dogs than between humans and any other animal.  In some cases dead dogs were even buried ceremoniously, much like humans.”

The author goes on to point out that “even if in times of crisis neighbouring bands drew closer together, and even if they occasionally gathered to hunt or feast together, they still spent the vast majority of their time in complete isolation and independence.”  There is no evidence that people traded with each other, or had a permanent political framework, and there were no permanent towns or institutions. “The average person lived many months without seeing or hearing a human from outside of her own band, and she encountered throughout her life no more than a few hundred humans.”

So, you can imagine the great importance of the relationship of each person with their dog!  That relationship and dependence continues, in some instances, until today.

Lula May Reed