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Hunting dogs as environmental adaptations in JōmonJapan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Angela R. Perri
Angela R. Perri*
Affiliation:
Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig 04103, Germany (Email: angela.perri@eva.mpg.de)
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Abstract

Was the use of hunting dogs an adaptation to the post-glacial deciduousforest environment in the northern temperate zone? Dog burials in JōmonJapan appear closely associated with a specific environment and with arelated subsistence economy involving the hunting of forest ungulates suchas sika deer and wild boar. Dogs were valued as important huntingtechnology, able to track and retrieve wounded animals in difficult,forested environments, or holding them until the hunter made the final kill.Greater numbers of dog burials during the later Jōmon phases may reflect agrowing dependence on hunting dogs to extract ungulate prey from forests inan increasingly resource-strained seasonal environment.

Keywords

JapanJōmondog burialhunting

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Type
Research
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Antiquity , Volume 90 , Issue 353 , October 2016 , pp. 1166 - 1180
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Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016 

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