 |
 |
Date sent: Thu, 19 Sep 1996 09:31:50 +0000 From: Alasdair Mackintosh <[log in to unmask]> Organization: Smallworld Systems Ltd To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Dogs Query Send reply to: [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] wrote: > > Dogs travel in packs and, undomesticated, were probably quite > frightening. Might there be a social dimension here as well? The aristocracy and the serfs probably had rather different views on dogs. (Which hunt in packs, and, when controlled by undomesticated barons, were probably very frightening indeed.) Serfs needed dogs to herd livestock, and they weren't completely excluded from the hunting process anyway (someone had to look after the hounds and do the beating and all the chores). Surely the ambivalence in the views about dogs (as also pigs) is to do with the takeover of biblical hostility to pigs and dogs (unclean in a hot climate) into a cooler climate where pigs and dogs can be clean and useful? Julia Barrow %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%