Page 48 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 4 8

The issues of efficiency and division of labour are only found in the beginning of
modernity, for example in the scientific management of the American Frederick Winslow
Taylor (1856-1915). Taylor believed that management, work and companies could be
optimised with a purely scientific approach in order to solve social problems and achieve
“prosperity for all” [31].

A different approach, also cited by Perri, reads better: “Clutton-Brock (1995, 1999)
suggested that the domestication of dogs was the result of a relationship between wolves and
humans, formed due to similar social structures and targeted prey, leading to a natural
alliance and collaborative hunting team” (A. Perri, p.1).

“Section I is entitled “Animal Partners” and deals with those species most closely associated
with man, the ones described in all standard veterinary anatomy texts. But Clutton-Brock
points out that it is not anatomy that counts, but behaviour. All the species in this section
are gregarious and non territorial, and they all have a strong dominance hierarchy into

which humans can insinuate themselves. And unlike the “exploited captives” (cats,
elephants, camels, etc.) seen in the next section, they have been profoundly changed by
domestication” (Clutton-Brock) [32].

Here we have the essential reference also to the characteristic of the guard dog classified
as “territorial”, which is social in nature and not a static geographical peculiarity. But we
will come to that later.

Perri continues: “Future ethnographic work on hunting dogs which provides additional
detail following the work of Koster (2008a), including cost-benefit analyses, age-sex profiles

of dogs and their prey, and treatment and care of hunting dogs, will only further benefit
archaeological approaches. Applications of this work to the archaeological record should be
mindful to the effects that environmental and cultural contexts, local prey species types, and

prey species diversity can have on the effectiveness of dogs as hunting technology” [33].