Can Folktales Help Us Learn Where and When Dogs Originated?

Source: Image by SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd

Over the span of my life, I have collected many folktales and myths about dogs because I felt that they were not only entertaining, but they had psychological value. From folktales, we learn about the emotions and feelings that people have concerning dogs. These stories often reflect our beliefs about the behavior, intelligence, and social nature of dogs. Apparently, I underestimated the scientific value of folktales. According to a new research report by Julien d’Huy of the Social Anthropology Laboratory at the College of France in Paris, analysis of myths about dogs might also provide us with answers as to where dogs were first domesticated and how they ultimately came to be dispersed throughout the world.

Where Did Dogs Originate?

People really seem to want an answer to the questions of when, where, and how dogs came to be. We have evidence based upon paleontology (looking at canine fossils and human artifacts) which suggests that humankind's close relationship with dogs started at least 14,000 years ago. Some studies involving nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA, suggest that that relationship might have started even earlier.

Exactly where dogs were first domesticated is still a murky matter with various scientists making conflicting claims. One set of researchers used genetic analysis to suggest that dogs originated from gray wolves that were domesticated in Europe 19,000 to 32,000 years ago. There is also an alternate set of DNA analyses reaching the conclusion that dogs were originally domesticated in Central or South Asia between 10,000 and 38,000 years ago. The issue is further clouded by controversy as to whether dogs came to us through a single domestication event or whether there were two or more times and places where wolves were tamed to become our dogs.

A New Method of Investigation

Professor d'Huy argues that we can answer some of the questions about where dogs originated by looking at folktales and myths. The argument is that many of these stories incorporate real-world characters and experiences as well as elements of fantasy. If people are telling stories about dogs, that's probably because they are coming into contact with dogs in their environment. If you live with dogs and you care about them, you probably have observed enough of their behaviors that you can use as a basis to spin some interesting stories. While these stories may be fantasies, they will contain bits of useful and true information and according to d'Huy “With mythology, we can have explanations of archaeology, we can have reasons for domestication, we can test hypotheses.”

This newest research began by first going through data banks that contain mythological motifs. A motif is a core idea in a story, and d'Huy identified 23 of these relating to dogs, which can be found in folktales all over the world. Some typical motifs might involve dogs guiding the souls of the dead or guarding the gates to the afterlife. There are stories of dogs, or dog-headed men marrying humans and having unusual offspring. Other popular motifs include dogs discovering fire, or stealing the sun so that man can have light. Some of my favorites are tales where dogs can talk but choose not to or have the abilities taken from them to force them to keep a secret. Variants of myths like these appear in many cultures throughout the world.

The truly clever aspect of this research is that d'Huy next used a set of statistical tools typically used by biologists and geneticists to create family trees showing the relationships among species and the evolutionary sequence of events. Of course, the data being entered into the computer program, in this case, are not biological characteristics of animals, but rather structural and content features from the various myths and folktales as well as the geographical locations where these stories were told.

Can Stories Trace the Canine Family Tree?

The results show that folktales focusing on dogs seem to have begun in Central and Eastern Asia. From there, the folktales spread to Europe and then moved on to the Americas. At a much later time, these canine myths migrated to Australia and Africa. The spread of dog mythology (and presumably the now domesticated dogs) follows a route of travel that is compatible with much of the genetic and fossil evidence.

The situation is a bit more complicated in America where it seems that there were possibly two separate arrivals of domestic dogs, with the second one only affecting the northern part of the continent. It is likely that the first influx of dogs in America came from those individuals who crossed the Bering Strait into North America and then eventually moved south bringing their dogs and their stories with them. The second coming of dogs and stories probably came from Europe at a later date, and was concentrated in the higher latitudes in America.

But Aren't These Simply Stories?

It appears that almost from the time of their domestication, dogs have taken on a psychological significance for human beings. We are emotionally involved with dogs and that is why we make up stories about them. If those folktales are well shaped and interesting they not only last for a long time, but we carry them with us and share them with others wherever we go. It is that inclination that allows us to use such anecdotes to trace back to the place where our dogs were first domesticated and to map their dispersion around the world.

Genetics Essential Reads

A Genetic Map Redraws the Borders of Mental Illness

This Is Not Your Mother’s Alzheimer’s Disease

The usefulness of stories as bits of historical data is confirmed by the fact that these folktales often coincide with cultural practices. I mentioned earlier that one of the more popular and widespread canine mythological motifs is that dogs are guides that take worthy people into the afterlife. This is consistent with certain archaeological finds such as a 14,000-year-old grave in Germany which contained a man, a woman, and two dogs. When the grave was opened the woman was found with her hand resting on one of the dogs' heads. Perhaps the descendants of this couple might end up telling a tale about how the dog was placed in the grave to guide the couple into paradise. If that story lives on, then today it seems that it can serve as a morsel of data that might help us discover the origin of dogs and the routes that dogs have taken as they spread out to inhabit the rest of the world.

Copyright SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd. May not be reprinted or reposted without permission