Kermit Snelson on Sat, 13 Apr 2002 01:08:00 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> the canine origins of media theory |
Caveman's best friend _The Week_, 5-11 April 2002 (Vol. 2; Issue 50) http://www.theweekmagazine.com Humans may have taught dogs to sit, stay, and heel, but canines have taught us a few tricks as well, say Australian researchers. Dr. Paul Tacon, of the Australian Museum, and Dr. Colin Pardoe, an Adelaide bio-archaeologist, theorize that dogs may have sparked human interest in written symbols and taught us to hunt in packs. "Evidence suggests domestication of dogs was a two-way street," they tell _Nature Australia_. "That led to profound changes in the biological and behavioral evolution of both species." Humans began their relationship with dogs as long as 130,000 years ago, when wolves began sniffing around human campsites for food. People watched their new friends mark their territory by urinating on rocks, and adopted a similar habit. However, because humans had a less developed sense of smell, they chose visual means of marking territory, drawing symbols on stones. Watching dogs also taught humans to form intimate social ties with nonrelatives and people of the same sex. Chimpanzees, our closest relatives, do not socialize with nonkin and same-sex animals, but dogs do. Tacon expects his theory to arouse controversy. "There will be some opposition," he says. "The cat people won't like it." # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net