Top dogs: wolf domestication and wealth

Abstract
A phylogeographic analysis of dog gene sequences reveals that small body size first
appeared in the Neolithic Middle East.
Dogs are the first domesticate, but the history regarding their transformation from
wolves is confusing, with genetic evidence pointing to Europe, the Far East and
places in between.
Most Western barnyard animals and the cat were domesticated between 12,000 and
8,000 years ago in a region of the Middle East known as the Fertile Crescent. Dogs
might have been domesticated earlier and (perhaps) elsewhere, the product of a still
more distant and primitive hunter-gatherer past.
A recent paper by Gray et al. suggests that small dogs appeared in the Middle East
around the time that human communities became settled. This suggests that dogs
were a precursor to wealth and inequality.

Let sleeping dogs lie

Although it is little doubt that dogs have a single Eurasian origin from the wolf, Canis
lupus, interpreting the detail of their molecular history has otherwise been difficult.
Mitochondrial DNA has proved peculiarly poor at reconstructing dog origins, in part
because wolves are highly mobile.
Gray et al. [13] used four genomic datasets to investigate the region around the
insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) gene on dog chromosome 15, and deduced that
the small dog haplotype (SDH) is derived, arising soon after the domestication of
dogs.
Although some estimates go back 31,000 years, it is more generally agreed that dog
domestication occurred between 13,000 and 17,000 years ago in the Levantine wing
of the Fertile Crescent, during a transition period between Paleolithic nomadic
hunter-gathering and the comparatively advanced settled agro-economies of the
Neolithic.

Puppy love: why wolf domestication?

There is increasing consensus on where and when wolves were domesticated, but
the how and why are still largely conjectural. Domestication is the result of
interwoven biological and cultural processes, and wolves were probably not initially
domesticated as pets.
The initial association of wolves and humans was doubtless instigated by the wolves,
but there must have been cultural continuity of wolf tolerance initially and of proto-
dog keeping subsequently. The different lifestyles of contemporary wild wolf
populations promote reproductive isolation.
The first 'dog' remains in the Near East were considered dogs in part because of
their reduced size. Perhaps intraguild competition led to small garbage-wolves that
became vigilant barkers at the approach of larger and hostile wolves.
Once in the thrall of humans, dogs became the object of unnatural attention. It is
plausible that the spontaneous occurrence of a 'small' dog, selected on post-zygotic
whim favoring the survival of particularly appealing puppies, encouraged match-
making 'kennel clubs' to breed these small dogs with one another, preserving the
morphotype.

The dogged pursuit of wealth

Dogs' smaller size was probably selected under the influence of people, because it
was maladaptive in the wild. This conclusion sheds a quizzical light on human
history, provoking a major question regarding the origin of Neolithic civilization.
Dogs are the earliest domesticates, predating barnyard animals by 1,000 to 5,000
years or more. They were probably domesticated by sedentary, stable human
cultures that had some loose cultural concept of tolerance for dogs, if not of caring
and ownership of them.
The Neolithic Revolution had many unpredictable consequences, including elaborate
politics, runaway population growth, taxes and social inequality. The more effective
the vertical transmission of wealth, the more pronounced the inequality over
generations.
Material wealth becomes more important as societies progress from hunter-gatherer
to agrarian, where wealth is more easily inherited. Domestic animals are the earliest
form of effectively heritable material wealth, and the presence of domesticated
animals can be an important indicator of when inequality of wealth began.
Dogs are the only pre-agricultural domesticate, and they paid dividends to their
human companions by increasing hunting success and being useful as sentries.
Despite the fact that contemporary indigenous societies often treat dogs badly, it is
not implausible that early dogs were valued by their companion humans. This would
make them objects of inter-generational wealth, and hence qualify as a vehicle for
inequality.
The early value of dogs might take several forms, including prestige and the ability to
convert inedible waste into usable protein. If dogs are wealth, then perhaps man's
best friend is also a precursor to social inequality?
The accumulating archeological, cultural and genetic evidence emphasizes that
wolves can be understood only in the context of early sedentism and civilization, and
that dogs were a primer for the notion that individual animals could be chattels.