Between Ethnography and Prehistory: The Case of the Australian Dingo

Abstract

Australian Aborigines and dingoes have the oldest surviving canine-human relationship in the world. Dingoes occupy a unique place in the evolution and understanding of this bond and are culturally and historically important on a global scale. Dingoes offer a rare snapshot of dog domestication because they last shared a common ancestor with domestic dogs more than 5,000 years ago and have not undergone more recent artificial selection (Cairns and Wilton 2016). The antiquity of this relationship and, until quite recently, their genetic isolation from modern breeds sets them apart from domestic dogs.