Viktor Ya. Sergin

Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow, Russia
E-mail: sergin81@bk.ru

Keywords: Western Europe, Dryas, Pleistocene, Magdalenian, wolf, dog, domestication

Modern concepts of wolf domestication have almost completely been reduced to the hypothesis of “self-domestication”. It is attractive for its declaration of the spontaneous course of events, although its most important idea is the need to remove the cubs from the pack for education among people. But even under this condition, as long-term experiments on raising tame foxes show, the intended result is unattainable. This work attempts to move the issue of wolf domestication from the sphere of abstract constructions to the area of archaeology and natural disciplines. The profound changes that took place in the environment and human culture at the end of the Pleistocene put the wolf and the human in the conditions of a closer neighbourhood. The emergence of dogs could be the result of active and mutually beneficial interaction between wolves and humans.

DOI: 10.31857/S086960630013698-6