Sunday, August 9, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
The first dog was domesticated in India
DOMESTICATION OF DOG
Molecular data suggests that the first female wolf was domesticated between 140,000 ybp and 100,000 ybp in either the Far East or South Asia from which all the present-day dogs have descended.(1) Homo heidelbergensis as well as Homo neanderthalensis were carnivorous. Even bear was in the menu of Neanderthal diet.(2) Hence they would not have been preferred as masters by dog. To suppose that any other species but Homo sapiens sapiens would have domesticated dog is entirely delusive. Therefore corollary is that Homo sapiens sapiens was there in India between 140,000 and 100,000 ybp to domesticate dog.
The typical batch of wolves and of humans is very similar ethologically. It is family-based, led by a dominant male, and his female partner is the next most important person in the group. Members of the group trust and depend on each other but are suspicious of outsiders. All members (not just the parents) are protective of the newly born and the young. Both species are good at interpreting the moods of others in the group. There is good non-verbal communication.
Domestication of dog was the first major thing to happen to man in his journey of civilization. Batch of dogs helped man in hunting and provided security to human settlements from wild animals. Living with dogs, man learned to attack the prey in groups, and hunt larger games. This gave a spirit of cooperation and team-work to Homo sapiens sapiens, which ultimately became the foundation stone for formation of society and order.
Necessity to store animal food live may have forced man to capture preys alive, and to keep them captive for weeks or months. Dog was very helpful to man in this task. This led to pre-domestication of cattle, which would be used for transport and agriculture thousands of years later. During Ice Age glacial phases, dog may have pulled the sledge. But for the dog, man would never have become what he is today.
The earliest Indians were probably hunter-food-gatherers. Later, on the banks of rivers and lakes, hamlets would have been built and sedentary life would have started providing an evolutionary selection in favour of domestication.(3) Peter Savolainen et al (2002) and Leonard et al (2002) found on the basis of mitochondrial DNA analysis that modern dog did not originate from Middle-eastern or European wolves. They found that the ancestral dog was in the East, either in South China or South Asia. Mitochondrial DNA analysis shows the African wild dog is derived from an entirely different pool of wolves.(4) Molecular clock study of dog DNA fixes the date of domestication of dog sometime between 140,000 ybp to 100,000 ybp.(5) Studies on human DNA show that Homo sapiens sapiens had not entered China by then.(6) This leaves us with a single likely place for domestication of dog, that is India not China, in about 100,000 ybp or so.
Archeological (fossil) evidence of dog does not date back to earlier than 14,000 ybp.(7) But before that time, wolf bones have been found in association with human bones up to 100,000 years before present. It has been suggested that dogs before 14,000 ybp were more like wolves; and that is the reason why their bones have looked like those of wolves. It sounds very much likely. There has been progressive gracilization of all domesticated animals as well as human species after LGM, probably because of a settled less rigorous lifestyle, which was a by-product of agriculture.(8) Savolainen (2004) showed that dingo, the Australian dog, was introduced into Australia from South-East Asian dog population, about 4,000 BCE.(9) Puja showed that there are intense genetic relations between Balinese dogs and the dingo.(10)
There are cognate words meaning dog in most of the languages of the world across language families. Dog in different Languages:
PIE kwon, and kuntos; Sanskrit shvAna, Latin Canis, Tamil ak-kan and cuNaGkan (or sunankan), French Chien (pronounced shi-en), Ancient Greek kyon and cyno-, Welsh ci, Irish cu, Lithuanian suo, Armenian shun, Avestan spa, Russian soboka, Chinese Pinyin quon or quan, Mandarin Chinese guo, Tocharian ku, Vietnamese cho, Austronesian Tagalog aso, Pampangan asu, Pangasinan aso. If we go through the words meaning ‘dog’ in other languages, even if the word does not sound cognate, it does have ‘k’, ‘sh’ or ‘s’ (or ‘ch’ or ‘j’) sound in a mono- or bi-syllabic setting.
From PIE kuntos: Old English hund from Old Germanic khundos; also probably Hindi-Urdu kutta, Hungarian kutya, Tamil kaTuvan, chakuTam.
A third group of cognates for dog, not represented at PIE level could be: Basque txakur, Old Chinese kkhwir, Sanskrit kukkura, Old Tamil kukkaN and kUraN. Old Chinese word for ‘dog’ kkhwir has great resemblance with Vajjika / Maithili (Bihari dialects) ‘khikkhir’ meaning ‘fox’.
Turkish kopek, Russian soboka and Amerindian Dakota suaka are also linguistic cognates (‘k’ changing to ‘s’, and ‘p’ to ‘b’). The Zulu (Africa) inja and Indonesian and Malaya anjing have striking similarities crossing geographical boundaries.
It can be safely concluded that there was a word for ‘dog’ in India as far back as in 85,000 ybp. This makes another conclusion obvious that verbal communication by means of language is at least as old as 85,000 ybp (the time of Austronesian migration).
References:
(1) Wayne, R. K. et al; “Molecular systematics of the Canidae”, Syst. Biol. 1997, 46: 622–653.
Vilà, C., Savolainen, Peter et al.; “Multiple and Ancient Origins of the Domestic Dog” Science 1997 June 13, 276(5319): 1687 – 1689.
Lindbald-Toh, mKerstein et al; “Genome sequence, comparative analysis and haplotype structure of the domestic dog”, in Nature 2005 Dec., 438: 803-819.
(2) Howells, William; Mankind in the Making, Secker and Wargurg, London, 1960, p. 193.
(3) Leach, Helen M.; “Human Domestication Reconsidered”, in Current Anthropology, June 2003, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 349-368.
(4) Savolain, Peter et al; ‘Genetic evidence for an East Asian origin of domestic dogs”, Science Volume 298, Issue 5598, 2002, pp. 1610-1613.
Leonard, J. A. et al; “Ancient DNA evidence for Old World origins of New World dogs”, Science 2002, 298: 1613-1616.
(5) Miklosi, Adam; Dog Behavior, Evolution and Cognition, Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 110-111.
(6) Oppenheimer, Stephen; The Real Eve : Modern Man’s Journey out of Africa, Carroll and Graf Publishers, New York, 2003.
(7) Miklosi, Adam, Dog Behaviour, Evolution, and Cognition. Oxford University Press, 2007.
Savolainen, Peter, Ya-ping Zhang, Jing Luo, Joakim Lundeberg, Thomas Leitner (2002). "Genetic Evidence for an East Asian Origin of Domestic Dogs", in Science, 2002, 298: 1610.
(8) Björnerfeldt,, Susanne, et al;; “Relaxation of selective constraint on dog mitochondrial DNA following domestication”, in Genome Res. August 2006 16:990-994;
Bednarik, Robert G.; Neurophysiology and paleoart, Lecture No. 6, Cognition and symbolism in human evolution, Semiotix Course 2006.
(9) Savolainen, Peter, et al; “A detailed picture of the origin of the Australian dingo, obtained from the study of mitochondrial DNA”, PNAS (Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), Aug. 17, 2004, vol. 101, no. 33, 12387-12390.
(10) Puja, I. K. et al; “The Kintamani Dog : Genetic profile of an emerging breed from Bali, Indonesia”, Journal of Heredity, Vol. 96, no. 7, pp. 854-859.
Molecular data suggests that the first female wolf was domesticated between 140,000 ybp and 100,000 ybp in either the Far East or South Asia from which all the present-day dogs have descended.(1) Homo heidelbergensis as well as Homo neanderthalensis were carnivorous. Even bear was in the menu of Neanderthal diet.(2) Hence they would not have been preferred as masters by dog. To suppose that any other species but Homo sapiens sapiens would have domesticated dog is entirely delusive. Therefore corollary is that Homo sapiens sapiens was there in India between 140,000 and 100,000 ybp to domesticate dog.
The typical batch of wolves and of humans is very similar ethologically. It is family-based, led by a dominant male, and his female partner is the next most important person in the group. Members of the group trust and depend on each other but are suspicious of outsiders. All members (not just the parents) are protective of the newly born and the young. Both species are good at interpreting the moods of others in the group. There is good non-verbal communication.
Domestication of dog was the first major thing to happen to man in his journey of civilization. Batch of dogs helped man in hunting and provided security to human settlements from wild animals. Living with dogs, man learned to attack the prey in groups, and hunt larger games. This gave a spirit of cooperation and team-work to Homo sapiens sapiens, which ultimately became the foundation stone for formation of society and order.
Necessity to store animal food live may have forced man to capture preys alive, and to keep them captive for weeks or months. Dog was very helpful to man in this task. This led to pre-domestication of cattle, which would be used for transport and agriculture thousands of years later. During Ice Age glacial phases, dog may have pulled the sledge. But for the dog, man would never have become what he is today.
The earliest Indians were probably hunter-food-gatherers. Later, on the banks of rivers and lakes, hamlets would have been built and sedentary life would have started providing an evolutionary selection in favour of domestication.(3) Peter Savolainen et al (2002) and Leonard et al (2002) found on the basis of mitochondrial DNA analysis that modern dog did not originate from Middle-eastern or European wolves. They found that the ancestral dog was in the East, either in South China or South Asia. Mitochondrial DNA analysis shows the African wild dog is derived from an entirely different pool of wolves.(4) Molecular clock study of dog DNA fixes the date of domestication of dog sometime between 140,000 ybp to 100,000 ybp.(5) Studies on human DNA show that Homo sapiens sapiens had not entered China by then.(6) This leaves us with a single likely place for domestication of dog, that is India not China, in about 100,000 ybp or so.
Archeological (fossil) evidence of dog does not date back to earlier than 14,000 ybp.(7) But before that time, wolf bones have been found in association with human bones up to 100,000 years before present. It has been suggested that dogs before 14,000 ybp were more like wolves; and that is the reason why their bones have looked like those of wolves. It sounds very much likely. There has been progressive gracilization of all domesticated animals as well as human species after LGM, probably because of a settled less rigorous lifestyle, which was a by-product of agriculture.(8) Savolainen (2004) showed that dingo, the Australian dog, was introduced into Australia from South-East Asian dog population, about 4,000 BCE.(9) Puja showed that there are intense genetic relations between Balinese dogs and the dingo.(10)
There are cognate words meaning dog in most of the languages of the world across language families. Dog in different Languages:
PIE kwon, and kuntos; Sanskrit shvAna, Latin Canis, Tamil ak-kan and cuNaGkan (or sunankan), French Chien (pronounced shi-en), Ancient Greek kyon and cyno-, Welsh ci, Irish cu, Lithuanian suo, Armenian shun, Avestan spa, Russian soboka, Chinese Pinyin quon or quan, Mandarin Chinese guo, Tocharian ku, Vietnamese cho, Austronesian Tagalog aso, Pampangan asu, Pangasinan aso. If we go through the words meaning ‘dog’ in other languages, even if the word does not sound cognate, it does have ‘k’, ‘sh’ or ‘s’ (or ‘ch’ or ‘j’) sound in a mono- or bi-syllabic setting.
From PIE kuntos: Old English hund from Old Germanic khundos; also probably Hindi-Urdu kutta, Hungarian kutya, Tamil kaTuvan, chakuTam.
A third group of cognates for dog, not represented at PIE level could be: Basque txakur, Old Chinese kkhwir, Sanskrit kukkura, Old Tamil kukkaN and kUraN. Old Chinese word for ‘dog’ kkhwir has great resemblance with Vajjika / Maithili (Bihari dialects) ‘khikkhir’ meaning ‘fox’.
Turkish kopek, Russian soboka and Amerindian Dakota suaka are also linguistic cognates (‘k’ changing to ‘s’, and ‘p’ to ‘b’). The Zulu (Africa) inja and Indonesian and Malaya anjing have striking similarities crossing geographical boundaries.
It can be safely concluded that there was a word for ‘dog’ in India as far back as in 85,000 ybp. This makes another conclusion obvious that verbal communication by means of language is at least as old as 85,000 ybp (the time of Austronesian migration).
References:
(1) Wayne, R. K. et al; “Molecular systematics of the Canidae”, Syst. Biol. 1997, 46: 622–653.
Vilà, C., Savolainen, Peter et al.; “Multiple and Ancient Origins of the Domestic Dog” Science 1997 June 13, 276(5319): 1687 – 1689.
Lindbald-Toh, mKerstein et al; “Genome sequence, comparative analysis and haplotype structure of the domestic dog”, in Nature 2005 Dec., 438: 803-819.
(2) Howells, William; Mankind in the Making, Secker and Wargurg, London, 1960, p. 193.
(3) Leach, Helen M.; “Human Domestication Reconsidered”, in Current Anthropology, June 2003, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 349-368.
(4) Savolain, Peter et al; ‘Genetic evidence for an East Asian origin of domestic dogs”, Science Volume 298, Issue 5598, 2002, pp. 1610-1613.
Leonard, J. A. et al; “Ancient DNA evidence for Old World origins of New World dogs”, Science 2002, 298: 1613-1616.
(5) Miklosi, Adam; Dog Behavior, Evolution and Cognition, Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 110-111.
(6) Oppenheimer, Stephen; The Real Eve : Modern Man’s Journey out of Africa, Carroll and Graf Publishers, New York, 2003.
(7) Miklosi, Adam, Dog Behaviour, Evolution, and Cognition. Oxford University Press, 2007.
Savolainen, Peter, Ya-ping Zhang, Jing Luo, Joakim Lundeberg, Thomas Leitner (2002). "Genetic Evidence for an East Asian Origin of Domestic Dogs", in Science, 2002, 298: 1610.
(8) Björnerfeldt,, Susanne, et al;; “Relaxation of selective constraint on dog mitochondrial DNA following domestication”, in Genome Res. August 2006 16:990-994;
Bednarik, Robert G.; Neurophysiology and paleoart, Lecture No. 6, Cognition and symbolism in human evolution, Semiotix Course 2006.
(9) Savolainen, Peter, et al; “A detailed picture of the origin of the Australian dingo, obtained from the study of mitochondrial DNA”, PNAS (Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), Aug. 17, 2004, vol. 101, no. 33, 12387-12390.
(10) Puja, I. K. et al; “The Kintamani Dog : Genetic profile of an emerging breed from Bali, Indonesia”, Journal of Heredity, Vol. 96, no. 7, pp. 854-859.
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