Page 29 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 2 9

However, a landrace, natural race, species or kind must have arisen beforehand, not so
much through deliberate selection by humans as through natural conditions.
Nevertheless, there were early attempts to mix different types of dogs, if they were
available, in order to obtain better characteristics. We already read about this in

Xenophon.

In his prologue to “Der Hund”, Erik Zimen writes about his dogs, which fascinated him
because they are at the same time dependent on humans, but also independent, full of life
and able to see through humans. This independence perhaps still refers to the wild animal
in the dogs; for Zimen, the dependence is set against the background of domestication. In

other words, the increase in alienation from the wilderness that has grown over long
periods of time and the turning towards the circle of human life. And already one would
like to fall into the trap that the dog became a pet through the will of man and was
formed through the will of man. But is that so?

-Sorting machines

What are sorting machines? Sorting machines are concepts of an abstract nature that
draw boundaries and say what is permissible and what is not. For example, selection,
which determines what should be inherited and what is not so desirable, is such a sorting
machine. Although we constantly talk about Darwin and refer to his theory of heredity,
we do not take into account what Darwin's background and intentions were when he
developed his ideas.

So let us look at Darwin's most important predecessors and contemporaries who
ultimately contributed directly or indirectly to his theory on the origin of species. This
idea of the origin of species, from which selection in domestic animals is derived, is of
course based on the thought model of how species could have arisen.

Carl von Linné (1707 to 1778) only summarises the genus Canis in his Systema naturae, but
otherwise does not say a word about the origin of the dog. The immutability of species,
the creation of all animals and plants once and for all form his basis. Nevertheless, he laid
the foundation for systematics in biology (from: Zimen).

In his work Histoire naturelle, the Count of Buffon (1707 to 1788) deals with all the

problems that were later to occupy the evolutionists as well. His whole work was
determined by the question of the usefulness of animals for man. In the case of the dog,
he even writes that man would not have been able to tame other animals without the help
of dogs! He also considers hunting without dogs unthinkable.