ANTH 89: Canine Cultures: Background Reading

Cinematic Canines by Adrienne L. McLean Dogs have been part of motion pictures since the movies began. They have been featured onscreen in various capacities, from any number of "man's best friends" (Rin Tin Tin, Asta, Toto, Lassie, Benji, Uggie, and many, many more) to the psychotic Cujo. The contributors to Cinematic Canines take a close look at Hollywood films and beyond in order to show that the popularity of dogs on the screen cannot be separated from their increasing presence in our lives over the past century. The representation and visualization of dogs in cinema, as of other animals, has influenced our understanding of what dogs "should" do and be, for us and with us. Adrienne L. McLean expertly shepherds these original essays into a coherent look at "real" dogs in live-action narrative films, from the stars and featured players to the character and supporting actors to those pooches that assumed bit parts or performed as extras. Who were those dogs, how were they trained, what were they made to do, how did they participate as characters in a fictional universe? These are a just a few of the many questions that she and the outstanding group of scholars in this book have addressed. Often dogs are anthropomorphized in movies in ways that enable them to reason, sympathize, understand and even talk; and our shaping of dogs into furry humans has had profound effects on the lives of dogs off the screen. Certain breeds of dog have risen in popularity following their appearance in commercial film, often to the detriment of the dogs themselves, who rarely correspond to their idealized screen versions. In essence, the contributors in Cinematic Canines help us think about and understand the meanings of the many canines that appear in the movies and, in turn, we want to know more about those dogs due in no small part to the power of the movies themselves.

The Dog and the Sportsman : Embracing the uses, breeding, training, diseases, etc., etc., of dogs and an account of the different kinds of game, with their habits : also, hints to shooters : with various useful recipes, etc.

Dogs by Raymond Coppinger; Lorna Coppinger Marking the first time that dogs have been explained in such detail by eminent researchers, Dogs is a work of wide appeal, as absorbing as it is enlightening. Drawing on insight gleaned from forty-five years of raising, training, and studying the behaviors of dogs worldwide, Lorna and Raymond Coppinger explore the fascinating processes by which dog breeds have evolved into their unique shapes and behaviors. Concentrating on five types of dogs--modern household dogs, village dogs, livestock-guarding dogs, sled dogs, and herding dogs--the Coppingers, internationally recognized canine ethologists and consummate dog lovers, examine our canine companions from a unique biological viewpoint. Dogs clearly points the way for dog lovers, dog therapists, veterinarians, and all others who deal with dogs to understand their animals from a fresh perspective. How did the domestic dog become a distinct species from the wolf? Why do different breeds behave differently? Most important, how can we improve the relationship between humans and dogs? The authors show how dogs' different abilities depend upon the confluence of their nature and nurture--that both genetics and the environment play equally key roles. They also reveal that many people inadvertently harm their canine companions because they fail to understand dogs' biological needs and dispositions. Dogs is a highly readable biological approach by noted researchers that provides a wealth of new information about the interaction of nature and nurture, and demonstrates how unique dog behavior is in the animal world.

The Domestic Dog by James Serpell (Editor) Why do dogs behave in the ways that they do? Why did our ancestors tame wolves? How have we ended up with so many breeds of dog, and how can we understand their role in contemporary human society? Explore the answers to these questions and many more in this study of the domestic dog. Building on the strengths of the first edition, this much-anticipated update incorporates two decades of new evidence and discoveries on dog evolution, behavior, training, and human interaction. It includes seven entirely new chapters covering topics such as behavioral modification and training, dog population management, the molecular evidence for dog domestication, canine behavioral genetics, cognition, and the impact of free-roaming dogs on wildlife conservation. It is an ideal volume for anyone interested in dogs and their evolution, behavior and ever-changing roles in society.

The Ecology of Stray Dogs by Alan M. Beck This study of dog ecology (and behaviour) and of human ecology (and behaviour) discusses the facets of the phenomenon of the urban free-roaming dog. It provides information for students who wish to embark on studies of wild canines.

Empire of Dogs by Aaron Herald Skabelund In 1924, Professor Ueno Eizaburo of Tokyo Imperial University adopted an Akita puppy he named Hachiko. Each evening Hachiko greeted Ueno on his return to Shibuya Station. In May 1925 Ueno died while giving a lecture. Every day for over nine years the Akita waited at Shibuya Station, eventually becoming nationally and even internationally famous for his purported loyalty. A year before his death in 1935, the city of Tokyo erected a statue of Hachiko outside the station. The story of Hachiko reveals much about the place of dogs in Japan's cultural imagination. In the groundbreaking Empire of Dogs, Aaron Herald Skabelund examines the history and cultural significance of dogs in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Japan, beginning with the arrival of Western dog breeds and new modes of dog keeping, which spread throughout the world with Western imperialism. He highlights how dogs joined with humans to create the modern imperial world and how, in turn, imperialism shaped dogs' bodies and their relationship with humans through its impact on dog-breeding and dog-keeping practices that pervade much of the world today. In a book that is both enlightening and entertaining, Skabelund focuses on actual and metaphorical dogs in a variety of contexts: the rhetorical pairing of the Western "colonial dog" with native canines; subsequent campaigns against indigenous canines in the imperial realm; the creation, maintenance, and in some cases restoration of Japanese dog breeds, including the Shiba Inu; the mobilization of military dogs, both real and fictional; and the emergence of Japan as a "pet superpower" in the second half of the twentieth century. Through this provocative account, Skabelund demonstrates how animals generally and canines specifically have contributed to the creation of our shared history, and how certain dogs have subtly influenced how that history is told. Generously illustrated with both color and black-and-white images, Empire of Dogs shows that human-canine relations often expose how people--especially those with power and wealth--use animals to define, regulate, and enforce political and social boundaries between themselves and other humans, especially in imperial contexts.

Free-Ranging Dogs and Wildlife Conservation by Matthew E. Gompper (Editor) Dogs are the world's most common and widespread carnivores and are nearly ubiquitous across the globe. The vast majority of these dogs, whether owned or un-owned, pure-bred or stray, spend a large portion of their life as unconfined, free-roaming animals, persisting at the interface of humanand wildlife communities. Their numbers are particularly large throughout the developing world, where veterinary care and population control are often minimal and human populations are burgeoning. This volume brings together the world's experts to provide a comprehensive, unifying, and accessible review of the effects of dogs on native wildlife species. With an emphasis on addressing how free-ranging dogs may influence wildlife management and native species of conservation concern, chaptersaddress themes such as the global history and size of dog populations, dogs as predators, competitors, and prey of wildlife, the use of dogs as hunting companions, the role of dogs in maintaining diseases of wildlife, and the potential for dogs to hybridize with wild canid species. In addition, thepotential role of dogs as mediators of conservation conflict is assessed, including the role of dogs as livestock guardians, the potential for dogs to aid researchers in locating rare wildlife species of conservation interest, and the importance of recognizing that some populations of dogs such asdingoes have a long history of genetic isolation and are themselves important conservation concerns. A common theme woven throughout this volume is the potential for dogs to mediate how humans interact with wildlife and the recognition that the success of wildlife conservation and management efforts are often underpinned by understanding and addressing the potential roles of free-ranging dogs indiverse natural ecosystems.Free-Ranging Dogs and Wildlife Conservation is aimed at professional wildlife and conservation ecologists, managers, graduate students, and researchers with an interest in human-dog-wildlife interactions. It will also be of relevance and use to dog welfare researchers, veterinary scientists, diseaseecologists, and readers with an interest in the interface of domestic animals and wildlife.

Free Market Dogs by Michal Piotr Pregowski (Editor); Justyna Wlodarczyk (Editor) What has changed in the last twenty-five years in the relationship of Poles with their dogs? How have the free market and capitalism influenced Poland and the human-canine bond there? Are dogs "property," "friends," or "members of the family" in post-communist Poland? Free Market Dogs, edited by Micha? Piotr Pr?gowski and Justyna W?odarczyk, examines the interactions and relationships of dogs and humans in contemporary Polish culture and society, and explores how Poland's intense exposure to Western--and particularly American--cultural patterns influenced the status of dogs after restoration of democracy in 1989. This book discusses topics such as the emergence of pet cemeteries, dog memoirs, and presidential dogs in Poland; the growing popularity of dog sports and the feminization of said sports; the philosophical and ideological changes in dog training caused by exposure to state-of-the-art methods from American books and videos; dogs in contemporary Polish art; and the specificity and growing pains of local pet-facilitated therapy. Free Market Dogs was written by researchers and practitioners whose academic background includes sociology, anthropology, pedagogy, cultural studies, and literary studies, and whose practical experience involves either training dogs or working with them. Based on thorough research and personal expertise, this is a great book for anyone interested in human-canine relationships--and their similarities and differences--around the world.

From Property to Family by Andrei S. Markovits; Katherine N. Crosby In the wake of the considerable cultural changes and social shifts that the United States and all advanced industrial democracies have experienced since the late 1960s and early 1970s, social discourse around the disempowered has changed in demonstrable ways. In From Property to Family: American Dog Rescue and the Discourse of Compassion, Andrei Markovits and Katherine Crosby describe a "discourse of compassion" that actually alters the way we treat persons and ideas once scorned by the social mainstream. This "culture turn" has also affected our treatment of animals inaugurating an accompanying "animal turn". In the case of dogs, this shift has increasingly transformed the discursive category of the animal from human companion to human family member. One of the new institutions created by this attitudinal and behavioral change towards dogs has been the breed specific canine rescue organization, examples of which have arisen all over the United States beginning in the early 1980s and massively proliferating in the 1990s and subsequent years. While the growing scholarship on the changed dimension of the human-animal relationship attests to its social, political, moral and intellectual salience to our contemporary world, the work presented in Markovits and Crosby's book constitutes the first academic research on the particularly important institution of breed specific dog rescue.

Greyhound Nation by Edmund Russell Edmund Russell's much-anticipated new book examines interactions between greyhounds and their owners in England from 1200 to 1900 to make a compelling case that history is an evolutionary process. Challenging the popular notion that animal breeds remain uniform over time and space, Russell integrates history and biology to offer a fresh take on human-animal coevolution. Using greyhounds in England as a case study, Russell shows that greyhounds varied and changed just as much as their owners. Not only did they evolve in response to each other, but people and dogs both evolved in response to the forces of modernization, such as capitalism, democracy, and industry. History and evolution were not separate processes, each proceeding at its own rate according to its own rules, but instead were the same.

A Jew's Best Friend? The Image of the Dog throughout Jewish History by Rakefet Zalashik (Editor); Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman (Editor) From antiquity to the contemporary period, the dog has captured the Jewish imagination. In medieval Christendom, the image of the dog was often used to characterize and demean Jewish populations. In the interwar period, dogs were still considered goyishe nakhes ("a gentile pleasure") and virtually unheard of in the Jewish homes of the shtetl. Yet, 'Azit the paratrooping dog of modern Israeli cinema, one of many examples of dogs as heroes of the Zionist narrative, demonstrates that the dog has captured the contemporary Jewish imagination. This book discusses specific cultural manifestations of the relationship between dogs and Jews, from ancient times to the present. Covering a geographical range extending from the Middle East through Europe and to North America, the book's contributors provide a unique cross-cultural, trans-national, diachronic perspective. An important theme in the book is the constant tension between domination/control and partnership which underpins the relationship of humans to animals, as well as the connection between Jewish societies and their broader host cultures.

Men and Their Dogs by Christopher Blazina (Editor); Lori R. Kogan (Editor) The healing power of the bond between men and dogs is explored in this unique book. Three important themes emerge: attachment, loss, and continued bonds with canine companions for males across the life span and from various contextual backgrounds. The contributors replace common assumptions with needed context pertaining to men's emotions and relationships, starting with the impact of gender norms on attachment, and including robust data on how canine companionship may counter Western culture socialization. The chapters engage readers with details pertaining to ways in which dogs help men develop stable, caring relationships, process feelings, and cope with stress - within a variety of environments including home, school and treatment programs for veterans, prisoners, and youth. The book also address men's loss of companion animals, and the need for building new ways of sustaining the memory and meaning of the bond in males' lives, referred to as a "continuing bond." From these various vantage points, therapeutic insights and relevant findings bring a new depth of understanding to this compelling topic.  Included in the coverage: Masculine gender role conflict theory, research, and practice: implications for understanding the human-animal bond in males' lives. At-risk youth and at-risk dogs helping one another. An examination of human-animal interaction as an outlet for healthy masculinity in prison. Exploring how the human-animal bond affects men's relational capacity to make and sustain meaningful attachment bonds with both human and animal companions .

Victorian Dogs, Victorian Men by Keridiana W. Chez Victorian Dogs, Victorian Men: Affect and Animals in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture by Keridiana W. Chez is the first monograph located at the intersection of animal and affect studies yo examine how gender is produced via the regulation of interspecies relationships. Looking specifically at the development of the human-dog relationship, Chez argues that the bourgeoisie fostered connections with canine companions in order to mediate and regulate gender dynamics in the family. As Chez shows, the aim of these new practices was not to use animals as surrogates to fill emotional vacancies but rather to incorporate them as "emotional prostheses." Chez traces the evolution of the human-dog relationship as it developed parallel to an increasingly imperialist national discourse. The dog began as the affective mediator of the family, then addressed the emotional needs of its individual members, and finally evolved into both "man's best friend" and worst enemy. By the last decades of the nineteenth century, the porous human-animal boundary served to produce the "humane" man: a liberal subject enabled to engage in aggressive imperial projects. Reading the work of Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Margaret Marshall Saunders, Bram Stoker, and Jack London, Victorian Dogs, Victorian Men charts the mobilization of affect through transatlantic narratives, demonstrating the deep interconnections between animals, affect, and gender.

Second Chances by Joan K. Dalton Second Chances: The Transformative Relationship Between Incarcerated Youth and Shelter Dogs recounts the story of Project POOCH (Positive Opportunities?Obvious Change with Hounds), a program that united incarcerated boys with unwanted dogs from animal shelters. Both the boys and the dogs were considered undesirable, and few had found love in their lives. As a result of the project, the lives of many youths and dogs changed forever. The project faced many challenges. The correctional facility administrators needed much convincing before approval was given to start the onsite program with one boy and one dog. At one point, Dalton sold her house to keep the project funded. However, since 1993, over 95 percent of the youths have not returned to corrections once their sentence was served. Some of the boys have gone on to college, and all have been gainfully employed. The POOCH dogs learned basic obedience and went on to become beloved family pets; some even became companion dogs to autistic children, people with physical impairments, and war veterans diagnosed with PTSD. Dalton?s own story starts with a family background where her dogs were killed for minor behavioral problems, and leads to teaching incarcerated youth that they deserve unconditional love, first demonstrated by the transformational connection with canines.

Whose Dog Are You? by Martin Wallen The intriguing question in the title comes from an inscription on the collar of a dog Alexander Pope gave to the Prince of Wales. When Pope wrote the famous couplet "I am his Highness' Dog at Kew, / Pray tell me Sir, whose Dog are You?" the question was received as an expression of loyalty. That was an era before there were dog breeds and, not coincidentally, before people were generally believed to develop affectionate bonds with dogs. This interdisciplinary study focuses on the development of dog breeds in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Beginning with the Foxhound--the first modern breed--it examines the aesthetic, political, and technological forces that generate modern human-canine relations. These forces have colluded over the past two hundred years to impose narrow descriptions of human-canine relations and to shape the dogs physically into acceptable and recognizable breeds. The largest question in animal studies today--how alterity affects human-animal relations--cannot fully be considered until the two approaches to this question are understood as complements of one another: one beginning from aesthetics, the other from technology. Most of all, the book asks if we can engage with dogs in ways that allow them to remain dogs.  

The Role That Assistance Dogs Play in Supporting People with Disabilities by Gabriel Bennett; Emma Goodall Dogs have long been recognised as valuable companions for people with disabilities. In this book, readers will learn about how dogs can improve the quality of life for people with physical, sensory, and mental disabilities. Using participant and expert insights, this book explores the benefits of dogs, including how they can increase independence, improve emotional wellbeing, and enhance social connections. Whether you are a person with a disability, a caregiver, a healthcare professional, or simply interested in learning more about the remarkable ways in which dogs can support people with disabilities, this book offers a compelling and informative read

Humans, Dogs and Other Beings by Baasanjav Terbish Step into the windswept steppes of Mongolia and explore a world where humans and animals have coexisted for centuries in a delicate, profound dance. This groundbreaking book examines the complex relationships between the Mongols and four animals-dogs, marmots, cats, and camels-shedding light on a nomadic culture that is deeply intertwined with its natural environment. Drawing from rich ethnographic accounts, historical records, and personal memoir, the author, of Mongol origin, offers a vivid narrative that intertwines cultural insights with intimate reflections. Each chapter delves into the dual nature of these animals: as both beings of Mongol cosmology and as tangible, living creatures that shape and are shaped by human lives. From the fierce loyalty and sharp temper of dogs to the culinary and medicinal significance of marmots, the mortal symbolism of cats, and the nurturing bond embodied by camels, these animals reveal unique facets of Mongol life and values. Through these stories, the book invites readers to consider universal questions about humanity's relationship with animals, our evolving cultures, and the shared fears, loves, and beliefs that define us. Insightful and evocative, this work is a must-read for anyone intrigued by human-animal connections, nomadic traditions, and the anthropology of coexistence.

Dogs, Past and Present by Ivana Fiore (Editor); Francesca Lugli (Editor) Dogs, Past and Present: An Interdisciplinary Perspectivegathers contributions from scholars from a variety of disciplines to provide a comprehensive assessment of the importance of dogs through history. Over the last decades, countless studies have examined the lives of dogs and their current place in our societies as well as their crucial part in human life and history. Data and hypotheses have progressively increased, sometimes controversially, in each field of investigation. The domestication of dogs and its success during prehistory is a fascinating theme that scholars of various disciplines are involved with. However, there has not been a real exchange between those approaches and it is extremely complex to reach a complete view of the thousands of texts which are published every year. By contrast, this volume is entirely dedicated to dogs and it is focused on the necessity of an 'interdisciplinary perspective' to fully understand the fundamental role that dogs have played in our past. When, where, how and why were dogs domesticated? What is their story? What was their role in the history of humankind? What is their role in traditional and non-traditional societies today? The book originated from the conference 'Dogs, Past and Present - an Interdisciplinary Perspective' held at CNR (National Scientific Council) and at Sapienza University in Rome (14-17 November 2018), promoted by the Italian Association for Ethnoarchaeology and organised by the editors.