Thesis
A relational perspective on dogs and their burials from DGRV-006 coastal southwestern British Columbia
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2015
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/100310
Abstract
Between the 2010 and 2013 field seasons, five dog burials and a number of isolated canid remains were recovered from Parry Lagoon Midden (DgRv-006) at the Dionisio Point archaeological locality, southwestern Coastal British Columbia. I analyze the individual dogs within these burials and build osteometric profiles of dogs using estimations of shoulder height and body mass, age and sex classifications, and markings of trauma or pathologies. Using a comparative osteometric dataset from the Northwest Coast, and drawing on the ethnographic and ethnohistoric records, I formulate and evaluate five hypotheses: 1) humans actively maintained dog populations; 2) dogs were actively cared for and well-nourished; 3) dogs were not raised as a food resource; 4) two breeds of dogs are present in the sample; and 5) dogs had the potential to operate as non-human persons within Coast Salish society. I further attempt to link their treatment and burial to emic perceptions of dogs by exploring themes within Coast Salish ontologies. I conclude that dogs were actively maintained, selectively bred, well cared for, and not raised for consumption, and that sample variation is within the range of other Northwest Coast samples but is not structured by the existence of two distinct types. Further, certain dogs were considered non-human persons within the Salish cosmology and were afforded burial rights similar to humans in a locale that acted as a formal place of human burial.
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Details
- Title
- A relational perspective on dogs and their burials from DGRV-006 coastal southwestern British Columbia
- Creators
- Matthew Marino
- Contributors
- Colin Grier (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525279601842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis