18.1 Humans and Animals

Defining Animals and Humans

Scientific definition of animals

Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms belonging to the kingdom Animalia. They're heterotrophic, meaning they rely on consuming other organisms (plants, other animals) for energy rather than producing their own food. Animals also lack cell walls and are capable of movement at some stage in their life cycle, whether during embryonic development or as adults.

Humans are classified as animals too, specifically as mammals within the primate order. We share many biological and physiological characteristics with other animals, including skeletal structure and organ systems. What sets humans apart are traits like advanced cognitive abilities, language, and culture (think problem-solving, complex communication, and social norms). That said, animal cognition research keeps revealing that many of these abilities exist on a spectrum. Other species show tool use, social learning, and communication systems of their own, so the line between "human" and "animal" cognition is less sharp than people once assumed.

Human-animal continuum in anthropology

The human-animal continuum is a concept that emphasizes the shared characteristics and evolutionary history between humans and other animals. Rather than treating "human" and "animal" as completely separate categories, this framework recognizes that we exist on a continuum with other species.

This matters for anthropology because it:

• Encourages a holistic approach to studying human behavior and culture by considering the role animals play
• Highlights the interconnectedness of human and animal lives through ecological relationships and cultural significance
• Leads to richer understanding of practices like domestication, animal symbolism, and emotional bonds across cultures
• Challenges anthropocentrism, the tendency to view humans as the central or most important species, which shapes how we perceive and treat other animals

Studying Human-Animal Relationships

Multispecies ethnography

Multispecies ethnography is a research approach that studies the interactions and relationships between humans and other species. Traditional ethnography focuses on human communities, but multispecies ethnography recognizes that non-human animals have agency and actively influence human societies and cultures.

This approach involves studying the entangled lives of humans and animals, with a focus on co-existence and mutual influence. For example, a multispecies ethnographer might study how dogs that assist in hunting shape the daily routines, social structures, and even spiritual beliefs of a community. Or they might examine how livestock and herders adapt to each other's behaviors over generations.

Multispecies ethnography provides a framework for exploring:

• Power relations between humans and animals (who controls whom, and how)
• Communication across species (how humans and animals signal to each other)
• The perspectives and experiences of both humans and animals in their interactions
• Cultural, social, and ecological significance of human-animal relationships in contexts like agriculture, companion animal keeping, and wildlife conservation
• Instances of human-wildlife conflict and strategies for coexistence

Milestones in dog domestication

Dog domestication is one of the most studied human-animal relationships, and it's a powerful example of how humans and animals have shaped each other over thousands of years.

Timeline and origins: Domestication began roughly 15,000 to 30,000 years ago, though the exact timeline and geographic location are still debated. The process likely started when wolves began associating with human hunter-gatherer groups, scavenging for food near human settlements. Over time, the wolves that were less fearful and more cooperative around humans had a survival advantage, and humans began selectively breeding them.

Selective breeding for specific roles: Humans bred dogs for different traits and purposes, including:

1. Hunting (tracking and retrieving prey)
2. Herding (controlling and guiding livestock)
3. Protection (guarding homes and alerting to threats)
4. Companionship (providing emotional support and loyalty)

This produced the wide variety of dog breeds we see today, each with characteristics suited to their roles. Border Collies, for instance, were bred for herding, while Labrador Retrievers were bred for retrieving game.

Impacts on human society:

• Increased efficiency of hunting and herding activities
• Greater protection and security for human settlements
• Development of strong emotional bonds, with dogs often considered family members
• Influence on human culture, art, and mythology (dogs appear in cave paintings, stories, and legends across many cultures)

Dog domestication is a clear example of biocultural evolution, where biological changes (in both dog anatomy and behavior) and cultural changes (in human practices and beliefs) interact and reinforce each other over time.

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human-Animal Studies

Understanding human-animal relationships requires drawing on multiple fields, each contributing a different lens.

• Ethology is the study of animal behavior in natural environments. It provides insights into how animals behave around humans and how those interactions work from the animal's side.
• Zooarchaeology analyzes animal remains from archaeological sites to reconstruct past human-animal relationships. By studying bones, shells, and other remains, zooarchaeologists can determine which animals people hunted, herded, or kept as companions thousands of years ago.
• Symbiosis refers to close, long-term interactions between species. In human-animal studies, researchers examine mutually beneficial relationships, such as humans providing food and shelter to domesticated animals while those animals provide labor, protection, or companionship in return.

Together, these approaches give anthropologists a more complete picture of how humans and animals have influenced each other across time and cultures.