Domestic dogs and wild canids on the Northwest Coast of North America: Animal husbandry in a region without agriculture?

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dc.contributor.authorMcKechnie, Iain
dc.contributor.authorMoss, Madonna L.
dc.contributor.authorCrockford, Susan J.
dc.date.accessioned2020-09-24T20:49:42Z
dc.date.available2020-09-24T20:49:42Z
dc.date.copyright2020en_US
dc.date.issued2020
dc.description.abstractDomestic dogs (Canis familiaris) occur in the archaeological record throughout North America but few zooarchaeological studies have examined the extent of wild and domestic canids using multi-site observations across regions. Here, we present a meta-analysis of 172,310 mammal specimens identified from 210 archaeological sites along the Northwest Coast focusing on canid abundance, distribution, and osteological identifications. We show that canids have a ubiquitous geographic distribution and a high relative abundance in particular Northwest Coast sub-regions and that species-level identifications are overwhelmingly of domestic dogs in contrast to ~1% of non-domestic canids (wolf, coyote, and fox). Along with geochemical and genetic data, these zooarchaeological observations indicate a variety of roles for dogs including hunting, companionship, and wool production in a region lacking terrestrial agriculture and domestic livestock. We suggest the frequently applied taxonomic status of ‘indeterminate canid’ underestimates the extent to which domestic dogs played key roles in regional economies and cultural practices. Increased attention to resolving taxonomic ambiguity of canids through improving comparative collections and osteometric datasets will help clarify the non-conventional domestication pathways practiced by Northwest Coast peoples.en_US
dc.description.reviewstatusRevieweden_US
dc.description.scholarlevelFacultyen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipWe thank the many Indigenous Nations across the coast for supporting archaeological research in their traditional territories and the many zooarchaeologists who have collectively generated data on which this paper is based. Special thanks to Becky Wigen and Gay Frederick for their several decades of research contributions and to the development of the UVic zooarchaeology laboratory collection. Thanks to staff at federal and provincial heritage agencies and academic, consulting, and Indigenous archaeologists for ensuring support for identification of vertebrate fauna in coastal archaeological research. We thank Nicole Smith, Becky Wigen, Dale Croes, Daryl Fedje, Guujaaw, Anne Salomon, Denis St. Claire, Chris Darimont, Quentin Mackie, Alan McMillan, Andrew Martindale, Duncan McLaren, Jim Stafford, Michael Blake, Virginia Butler, Steve Wolverton, Stephen Dueppen, Dana Lepofsky, Dylan Hillis, Bill Angelbeck, Jon Driver, Lisa Mitchell, and Peter Stahl for formative conversations in the development of this paper which was first presented as a poster at the 2010 International Council of Archaeozoology (ICAZ) conference in Paris. Funding for portions of this research was provided by a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship hosted at the University of Oregon, a Hakai Institute Scholar award hosted at Simon Fraser University, and most recently by a NSERC Discovery Grant (#531246) awarded to IM.en_US
dc.identifier.citationMcKechnie, I., Moss, M. L., & Crockford, S. J. (2020). Domestic dogs and wild canids on the Northwest Coast of North America: Animal husbandry in a region without agriculture? Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 60, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101209.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101209
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/12141
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherJournal of Anthropological Archaeologyen_US
dc.subjectNorth Americaen_US
dc.subjectFisher-hunter-gatherersen_US
dc.subjectAnimal domesticationen_US
dc.subjectZooarchaeologyen_US
dc.subjectNorthwest Coasten_US
dc.subjectDogsen_US
dc.subjectCanidsen_US
dc.titleDomestic dogs and wild canids on the Northwest Coast of North America: Animal husbandry in a region without agriculture?en_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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