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| Photo Credit: Johan Gallant |
The
geographical origin for the domestic dog is probably Eurasia. While modern dogs may have had a single origin about 15,000 YBP, earlier
paleodogs may have been present 33,000 YBP. Dogs in sub-Sahara
Africa therefore are most likely to be recent invaders from Eurasia.
Currently, the oldest archaeological evidence for the presence of domestic dogs
in Africa comes from about 7000-6000 YBP (the Neolithic of Egypt’s Western
Desert and along the Nile in Egypt and Sudan). However, dogs do not appear to
be widespread or common in African archeological sites until about 1000 YBP. This may be the result
of confusion distinguishing between dog remains and jackal remains, or a more recent
introduction of dogs.
In
a new paper, Peter Mitchell (2014) of Oxford University follows up on an earlier
paper on dog use by pre-colonial herders in southern Africa. Mitchell notes
that dogs were one of several domestic animals kept by south African herders, but their economic and social relevance is poorly known. He reviews the
evidence for the dog’s introduction into southern Africa and assesses the
relative strengths of various lines of evidence (osteology; ancient DNA; animal
tracks; faunal taphonomy) to identify those instances where the presence of
dogs can most convincingly be established on sites used by herders.
The
study reports skeletal evidence for herder-associated dogs comes from a handful
of sites in the western half of South Africa, Namibia and, possibly, Botswana. A
review of previous studies noted the strongest evidence is a nearly complete
human burial in a shell midden at Cape St Francis on the Indian Ocean coast (dated
1150 ± 40 YBP) found with the skeleton of a small dog in the lap of the human
skeleton. Other evidence suggests dogs have been present in the western regions
of southern Africa since about at about the same time. Mitchell suggests that herder
communities in the Cape acquired dogs through some exchange-mediated process of
diffusion sourced ultimately to farmers in the eastern third of South Africa.
The
first documented observation of dogs in southern Africa was made by Vasco da
Gama and dates to 7 November 1497 when the Portuguese explorer observed people
who were probably hunter-gatherers with dogs. Most observations of dogs with Khoe-speaking
herders postdate the onset of Dutch colonization of the Cape in 1652. The dogs
were medium height with short hair, long muzzles, and ears that could be erect
and pointed or drooping. Analysis of skeletons buried at Zerrissene Mountain
and Cape St Francis supports this description. These dogs were small, and more
gracile overall than those found at agro-pastoralist sites in the
Shashe-Limpopo Basin.
Some
commentators suggest that the Khoe-speakers did not value their dogs highly, noting
they were few in number and scrawny, and not cared for. But, in 1731 Peter
Kolbe wrote more extensively about these people and considered the dogs well
taken care of. Dogs of the Korana speaking people were larger and varied from grey
to white to brown in color, but interbreeding with dogs introduced to South
Africa by Europeans cannot, perhaps, be excluded. Korana dogs were also well
treated. They were feed meat and milk.
Mitchell
proposes dogs in used by herding cultures acted as companions, guard dogs,
defenders of livestock, and as aids in hunting. While the Damara in
north-central Namibia apparently ate dogs, there is no evidence to support this
in the other cultures. Dogs also played a role in the belief systems of these
peoples, to at least a limited degree.
Hendrik
Wikar led an expedition to the north of the Cape Colony in the 1770s, and
recounts the story of a group of women who chose to sleep on an elephant trail
close to a river. Not having dogs with them, and having chosen not to light a
fire, two were trampled to death by a passing elephant. Dogs could also alert their
human companions to human enemies, Jan van Riebeeck describes this in early
conflicts between the Cape Khoekhoen people and the Dutch East India Company in
1659. Dogs also alert people to the presence of predators of livestock. Today
in Kenya, for example, annual livestock losses to predators are in the range of
1-6 %, though this understates their possible significance to individual
owners.
European
farmers in the 19th and 20th centuries employed shooting, traps and poisons to
control jackals and reduce their attacks on sheep, precolonial herders must
necessarily have depended more heavily upon dogs. Kolbe wrote about this in
1731 and describes how the Khoe-speakers would release dogs at night to guard
livestock.
Mitchell
suggests when and how dogs came to be part of the lives of southern African
herders merits more research. Noting that it might be productive to look at the
taphonomy of other faunal assemblages where sheep are prominent to see if there
is evidence for canine-induced modification. Sheep do not travel by
themselves, they needed to be looked after. Previous authors have proposed that
dogs and livestock spread together in the Neolithic Sahara. And, it seems
likely that success in a carnivore-rich African landscape would have been very
difficult without the help of the dog.
Today,
dogs are being used in southern Africa to protect sheep from local predators.
There is a dual benefit because the dogs guard the sheep from the
endangered cheetah and protect the cheetahs from being shot by the farmers. Anatolian sheep dogs are being used for this purpose. However indigenous dogs are still present in southern Africa, they are free-ranging and still exhibit behaviors involved in guarding livestock. For more on indigenous African dogs see the AfriCanis website; The story of the African Dog by Johan Gallant. And, SOS Dog, The purebred Dog Hobby re-examined by Johan and Edith Gallant.
Citation
Mitchell,
P. (2014). The canine connection II: dogs and southern African herders. Southern African Humanities, 26, 1-19.
