Talk: Dog Days of Summer: When Is a Dog a Dog?

SAR presents the Dog Days of Summer, a series of outdoor talks about human’s best friend. Dogs invited! Stroll the scenic SAR campus in the cool morning, then join a community of dog lovers to hear talks in honor of the Dog Days of Summer. Open to humans and responsibly handled, leashed dogs. Cold beverages provided.

When Is a Dog a Dog?

Emily L. Jones, Ph.D.
2024–25 SAR Weatherhead Fellow
Professor and UNM Regents’ Lecturer
Director, Zooarchaeology Lab, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico

Dogs’ status as “man’s best friend” is long-standing. These animals entered into a domestic relationship with humans tens of thousands of years ago, and they soon spread, alongside humans, to all corners of the world. But while the dog-human history is an ancient one, the roles dogs play in different cultures vary, and sometimes—as in the pre-Hispanic North American west—coyotes seem to have filled these roles as well. In this talk, Emily Jones uses recent archaeological findings about dogs, other canids, and humans in New Mexico to illustrate the roles canids held in New Mexican communities through time, to show how the archaeological record can tell us about these different roles, and to explore what our changing relationship with canids can reveal about cultural and biological change.

FREE admission. Advance registration encouraged.
Gates open at 9 AM. Talk begins at 10 AM.