Dogs and Their Humans in Pacific Island Interspecies Cultures

CHAPTER ONE Human–Canine Interspecies Cultures in Oceania and in General: An Introduction
Roger Ivar Lohmann
CHAPTER TWO What Arapesh Dogs Mean: The Figure of the Talking Dog on New Guinea’s Sepik Coast
Lise M. Dobrin
CHAPTER THREE Dogs in Majuro: Pests, Pets, and Perils
Jordan Prokosch
CHAPTER FOUR More Aloha for the Dogs: The Cultural Context of Dogs in Hawaii
Lynn Morrison
CHAPTER FIVE Is a Dog an Artifact? Archaeological Investigations of Dogs and Their Humans in Oceania
Karen Greig
CHAPTER SIX Dog or Dog-Gone? A View from Four (Almost) Dogless Islands
Richard Feinberg and Cathleen Pyrek
CHAPTER SEVEN Dogs without Their Humans: Occurrences of “Wild Dogs” in Oceania Prior to Europe-an Colonization
Loukas G. Koungoulos
CHAPTER EIGHT Cultural Differences in Dogs in Central New Guinea
Roger Ivar Lohmann
CHAPTER NINE Going to the Dogs with Enewetak/Ujelang Marshall Islanders
Laurence Marshall Carucci
CHAPTER TEN A Samoan Odyssey: Mysterious Spirit Dogs and Interspecies Enculturation
Fepulea’i Micah Van der Ryn
CHAPTER ELEVEN Sniffing toward the Future: Accessing Interspecies Enculturated Dogs’ Perspectives
Roger Ivar Lohmann

Biography

Roger Ivar Lohmann is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Trent University, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. His interspecies household in Markham includes a human called Heather M.-L. Miller and two rescue Shiba Inus: Wasabi (a would-have-been meat dog from a slaughterhouse near Beijing, China) and Shoga (a former puppy mill mother abandoned on the streets of Scarborough, Ontario).

“This wonderfully wide-ranging and multifaceted volume offers a long overdue focus on the inter-species culture (felicitous phase) of dogs and people throughout the Pacific. It roams across geography and through archeology and anthropology to explore the rich lives of dogs alongside people in the Pacific lands. There is also fresh light and some deep thoughts about shared human–canine lives that will be interesting and useful for those interested in people and their dogs wherever they are found.”
Clive Wynne, Professor of Psychology, Arizona State University, Author of Dog Is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You

“This groundbreaking book explores complex relationships between humans and dogs through the innovative lens of interspecies culture, illustrating how people and dogs culturally shape each other. Contributors illuminate worlds that dogs and people have built together—sometimes with affection, sometimes with ambivalence, sometimes through absence or with violence—but always in relationship. This first comprehensive anthropological study of dogs across the Pacific is essential reading for multispecies researchers and all those who love dogs and want to know more about the innumerable and fascinating ways our lives are entangled.”
Yasmine Musharbash, Associate Professor in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University

“Across Oceania dogs have held, and continue to hold, a diversity of culturally informed and environmentally influenced roles ranging from family members to food. Yet, anthropological forays into the complex interspecies relationships between Dogs and their Humans are rare. In this much anticipated volume, Lohmann brings together a diverse group of anthropologists to discuss the intertwined lives of dogs and humans. The eloquently written and highly accessible case studies within are certain to appeal to researchers and dog lovers alike.”
Justin Cramb, Assistant Professor of Archaeology, University of Alaska Fairbanks

“Dogs and Their Humans in Pacific Island Interspecies Cultures is an important contribution to the burgeoning literature about human–canine relationships. Detailed case studies bring the myriad and complex ways our two species interact to light. Finely grained and nuanced observations and analyses of canine cultures (feral, stray, pampered companion, hunter, guard, food) and human cultures (classes, ethnicities, genders) show how dogs and humans shape each other while creating diverse human–canine interspecies cultures.”
Bryan Cummins, Author of Our Debt to the Dog: How the Domestic Dog Helped Shape Human Societies