Asia on the world map.
While the Village Dog Project is researching the origins of dogs, researchers in Stockholm have pinpointed where and when wolves were domesticated to become dogs:
in an article in the scientific journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, … it is claimed that the dog appeared 16,000 years ago, in Asia, south of the Yangtze River in China. …
The time for the emergence of the dog conforms well with when the population in this part of the world went from being hunters and gatherers to being farmers, which was 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.
[Via : Cradle And Birthday Of The Dog Identified: East Asia 16,000 years ago.]
The reason why humans domesticated wolves is a little dark, for those of us who see our dogs as lovable members of the family:
…the research findings provide several exciting theories. For example, the original dogs, unlike their later descendents in Europe, which were used as herders and guard dogs, probably ended their lives in the stomachs of humans.
In some cultures eating dogs is as normal as eating lamb or beef in others.
This is a very sore point when it takes place in the ‘wrong’ location, as happened in New Zealand recently when a Tongan family cooked and ate a dog:
Mr Taufa said he was unaware that cooking his pet was not normal in New Zealand.
“I didn’t know I couldn’t cook the dog,” he said. “In Tonga, any time there I cook the dog and it is okay. Dog is good food.”
[Via : Dog eater needs 'education, not punishment' - National - NZ Herald News.]
I guess if we were to domesticate, say, deer, and have them living in our homes with us, we’d eventually find the notion of eating venison as controversial as the notion of eating dog.
Map from Wikimedia Commons.
