Why Anthropologists Should Study Dogs
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24229074 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kyle C M Smith (0000-0001-6430-356X, Department of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts Pennsylvania State University University Park Pennsylvania USA) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | e70050-e70050 |
| Publication date | 2026-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1060-1538 • E-ISSN: 1520-6505 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/evan.70050 |
| PMID | 42870513 |
| OpenAlex | W7221764120 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 111 |
While primates have traditionally been a focus of evolutionary anthropologists, the domestic dog represents a valuable complementary model due to its long shared evolutionary history with humans. The advantages of studying dogs are particularly evident in four key areas: (1) analyzing evolutionary adaptations, (2) understanding humanity's past, (3) examining humanity's cultural diversity, and (4) assessing factors that influence human health. Dogs have convergently evolved social cognition and local adaptations (including altitude adaptations and the ability to digest starches and lactose) that parallel those of humans, making them valuable models for testing evolutionary hypotheses. The global spread of dogs also illuminates human population histories, and isotopic analyses of dog remains can be proxies for human dietary data when sampling human remains is infeasible or inappropriate. Dogs' near‐universal presence across human societies and exposure to the same real‐world environments further make them uniquely powerful models for studying cultural variation and health.
Convergent evolution · Cultural diversity · dogs · evolutionary models · high-altitude adaptation · human diet · Human health · human population history · human-dog coevolution · lactose tolerance · Social cognition · starch hydrolysis · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Human-Animal Interaction Studies · Language and cultural evolution
Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of Ancient Canids Suggest a European Origin of Domestic Dogs
Survival of the Friendliest
Altitude adaptation in Tibetans caused by introgression of Denisovan-like DNA
Confocal Imaging–Guided Laser Ablation of Basal Cell Carcinomas
Rethinking dog domestication by integrating genetics, archeology, and biogeography
Stress and Health
Diet and the evolution of human amylase gene copy number variation
The weirdest people in the world?
Ancient DNA evidence for the introduction and dispersal of dogs in New Zealand
Dog-Human Coevolution
“A Part of the People”
Evaluating the self‐domestication hypothesis of human evolution
When and where do dogs improve hunting productivity? The empirical record and some implications for early Upper Paleolithic prey acquisition
Who let the dogs in? A review of the recent genetic evidence for the introduction of the dingo to Australia and implications for the movement of people
Dogs as Analogs in Stable Isotope-Based Human Paleodietary Reconstructions
Archaeological dogs from the Early Holocene Zhokhov site in the Eastern Siberian Arctic
Estimating ancient Huron-Wendat diet in southern Ontario using stable isotopes from dogs
Burying key evidence
A new look at an old dog
Hunter‐gatherer studies and human evolution
Rethinking the starch digestion hypothesis for AMY1 copy number variation in humans
Dietary variation among indigenous Nicaraguan horticulturalists and their dogs
Kin terms and fitness interdependence
De l'origine du chien et de sa diffusion à l'aune de sa mythologie
Tasmanian Aborigines and Dogs
Hunting dogs as environmental adaptations in Jōmon Japan
Craniofacial Feminization, Social Tolerance, and the Origins of Behavioral Modernity
Telling Warlpiri Dog Stories
The Birch Creek Canids and Dogs as Transport Labor in the Intermountain West
When dogs and people were buried together
Hunting dogs down under? On the Aboriginal use of tame dingoes in dietary game acquisition and its relevance to Australian prehistory
| Highly cited | No |
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