First Dogs: Hunter-Gatherers and Their Canine Companions from Prehistory to the Present

By Peter Mitchell

First Dogs provides the first comprehensive overview of the relationships between humanity's best friend (and oldest domestic animal) and hunter-gatherers.

The book uses archaeological and anthropological evidence to explore the hunter-gatherer/canine relationship from the beginnings of the domestication process to the present. As well as looking at conventional case studies from the Global North, it also uses examples from Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. The result is an understanding of how hunter-gatherers have lived with dogs that is novel in its thematic reach, its temporal span, and its global range. Having situated previous work on dogs and hunter-gatherers within the broader fields of archaeology and anthropology, the book first explores how, when, and where grey wolves became dogs before tracing their dispersal beyond Eurasia into North America, the tropics, and beyond. Four thematic chapters then consider their roles as hunting aids and transport technologies, as well as how they have been fed, cared for, and thought about by hunter-gatherer populations worldwide. A further chapter explores the canine dimension of European colonialism's impacts on Indigenous peoples since 1492. The emphasis throughout is strongly interdisciplinary, drawing not only on archaeology and anthropology, but also on work in genetics, history, ecology, and linguistics.

First Dogs offers an up-to-date account of all aspects of the relationship between hunter-gatherers and their canine companions aimed at academic and nonacademic audiences alike.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 103282655X
• ISBN13: 9781032826554
• Release Date: August 2026
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 342 Pages