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Man’s Best Friend: The History of Dog Domestication

Khalid Elhassan June 3, 2025 16 min

8. The Role of Dogs in Hunter-Gatherer Societies: Did They Play a Part in Neanderthal Extinction?

Dogs - The arrival of humans with dogs might have been catastrophic for Neanderthals — The arrival of humans with dogs might have been catastrophic for Neanderthals. Dan Burr Illustrations

Before agriculture, humans lived in small, mobile hunter-gatherer bands. In that context, dogs served several roles: hunting partners, guards, camp cleaners, and companions. Their heightened senses of smell and hearing greatly helped humans locate prey, and warned of danger. Some anthropologists argue that dogs provided a significant evolutionary advantage to early humans. They improved hunting efficiency and provided warmth and companionship, which would have increased human survival and reproductive success.

However, what was good for Homo sapiens might have been bad for our closest Homo relative. Some scholars argue that the human-dog team was so formidable, that it outcompeted and drove the Neanderthals into extinction. Such symbiosis would have strengthened the bond between the species. Studies of modern hunter-gatherer groups, such as the San people of southern Africa or the Nayaka of India, show that dogs are still used in similar ways.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.