A Deep Time Perspective on the Shared Cultural and Evolutionary History of Dogs and People

For many of us, dogs are not just pets, they are family members with their own bespoke clothing and therapists and trendy snacks (for example, canine pumpkin spice latte treats). Dogs have become so integrated into our lives that it is difficult to imagine how, for at least 90% of our species’ history, we lived without them. In this talk I will discuss how dogs are best conceived as an emergent property of the interaction between human populations and wolves, and how the union of those two species has intensified over the past 15,000 or so years. Specifically, I will detail how numerous approaches to studying dogs has revealed just how deep our relationship has been, and how that has manifested both biologically and culturally. It is not overstating things to say that dogs are people, and we are our dogs.