Raymond Pierotti

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• PhD Dalhousie 1980
• Professor at University of Kansas

In this study, I discuss recent studies of human/wildlife mutualisms and suggest that several cases considered to represent domestication that has arisen through commensalism would be better considered as examples of mutualism between humans and various wild species. Species discussed include the only domesticated carnivores: cats (Felis sylvestris...

The most important concept for dealing with plant and animal resources in the traditional worldview is respect. Various terms for and descriptions of this concept exist in Native North America, and in eastern Asian societies that are similar in being relatively small-scale and involved intensely with the natural world. Respect is ultimately the key...

The settler-society myth of the “wasteful” Native Americans, who exterminated the Pleistocene megafauna and drove millions of buffalo over cliffs, persists in spite of criticism. The present book must include some debunking of this myth. Native American stories make it clear that overhunting did occur and was recognized; it was also stopped when it...

Land mammals were important as game and sources of hiding, bone, and other useful items, and were subject to relatively strict management rules. Plants were also important and were often managed intensively; cultivation was rare but the Pacific Coast is known for the scale of manipulation of wild stands. This was done through widespread rules and p...

The core of this book lies in these chapters on management and its ideology. The rules governing use of resources are fairly straightforward. Ownership and usufruct are specified at various levels, from complete open-access to individual ownership. Rules for common-pool use include taking no more than is needed, taking enough to leave a viable popu...

Sociopolitical organization is done through extended kinship units: lineages or bilateral groups. Except in a few small-scale societies of the deep interior, politics operates through titled hereditary leaders of kinship groups, the “chiefs” of settler literature. Warfare was frequent. Sociopolitical life often operated through feasts and “potlatch...

The most basic and important resources in the Northwest Coast are aquatic, especially sea mammals, marine fish, and sea-running (anadromous) fish. The several species of salmon and sea-running trout are the most famous of these, defining the region in many views. Many less-known resources were highly important and are described here, since they ten...

This chapter goes into more detail about the philosophy of resource use and human relationships with the environment. Contrasts of “human” versus “nature” were minimal. Relatedness to the nonhuman world was maintained by spirit interaction and sometimes by reincarnation, involving beliefs of humans reincarnated as or transforming into animals, and...

Settlement was disastrous to Indigenous people, who lost about 95% of their population between 1700 and 1900. They also sustained cultural attacks, especially the now-infamous boarding schools that removed children from parents and all too often let them die. The resource base suffered depletion. The famous fisheries have been hard hit, with many p...

The visual arts of the Northwest Coast also teach traditional values of interacting with the world. The arts, dances, and displays of the region are world famous, but their purpose was never limited to aesthetic delight. It went far beyond that, to display kinship-group properties of spiritual powers, to teach common values and ideals, and to revea...

The Northwest Coast worldview and its management principles for the environment and for plant and animal resources are closely related to those of eastern Siberia, from which the Northwest was never separate. The Siberian views in turn are linked to views widely held in northern Eurasia. We extend a long-standing link of material culture and story...

The rules and principles of resource use, management, and respect are taught and maintained through stories. Many of these involve spirit beings and ancient times, and are regarded as mere myths and tales by outsiders, but they teach realistic and sensible values. Other stories are taken from personal experience, but are also used to make particula...

This section provides an overview of California cultural materials—stories, teachings, oratory, and stated principles—that carry the Northwest Coast messages onward down the coast.

The claim that common-pool resources cannot be well managed has been disproved, but research shows that a number of specific rules and principles must be in place for the management of such resources to succeed. We follow Elinor Ostrom and others in documenting commons management through community rules (written or unwritten) enforced by moral suas...

A contrast exists between the Indigenous view of connection, interaction, and community, often mediated through spirits, and the view of settler-society biologists, resource users, and managers, which usually postulates a profound gap between “humans” and “nature,” does not recognize spirits of natural kinds, dismisses traditional beliefs of all so...

The Indigenous people of northwestern North America have been here at least 16,000 years, and have developed a highly diverse range of languages and cultures. At least nine completely unrelated language families exist. Economies largely focus on fishing, hunting, and plant management and gathering. Large villages with kin-based political organizati...

Human‐wildlife cooperation is a type of mutualism in which a human and a wild, free‐living animal actively coordinate their behaviour to achieve a common beneficial outcome. While other cooperative human‐animal interactions involving captive coercion or artificial selection (including domestication) have received extensive attention, we lack integr...

Human–wildlife cooperation occurs when humans and free-living wild animals actively coordinate their behavior to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome. These interactions provide important benefits to both the human and wildlife communities involved, have wider impacts on the local ecosystem, and represent a unique intersection of human and animal...

1. Human-wildlife cooperation is a type of mutualism in which a human and a wild, free-living animal actively coordinate their behaviour to achieve a common beneficial outcome. 2. While other cooperative human-animal interactions involving captive coer-cion or artificial selection (including domestication) have received extensive

Oral traditions of Indigenous American peoples (as well as those of other Indigenous peoples) have long been discussed with regard to their reliability as metaphorical accounts based upon historical knowledge. I explore this debate using stories to discuss the importance of the role of Corvidae in Indigenous knowledge traditions and how these stori...

We respond to Mech (2019) “Do Indigenous American Peoples’ Stories Inform the Study of Dog Domestication” and point out a number of errors and omissions in Mech’s essay. These include: 1) assuming that the behavior of all wild wolves is the same, and can be characterized according only to Mech’s personal experience; 2) assuming that the domesticati...

In recent years there have been several attempts to examine Ethnobiology from an evolutionary perspective. I discuss several potential sources of confusion in applying Evolutionary concepts to Ethnobiology. Ethnobiological discussions of evolution have focused more on changes in human populations, or on human impacts upon plants used by humans for...

This paper explores how male and female scientists consider and evaluate the dynamics of pair-bonds in an obligately monogamous species, the Western Gull, Larus occidentalis. We find that having female investigators working alongside male investigators provides a deeper, richer and more nuanced set of insights into the biology of pair-bonding and m...

p>Whether individuals hold static or dynamic worldviews underlies a number of contemporary controversies, including evolution/creationist debates, the reality of climate change, and application of treaty rights by Indigenous cultures. In this last case the debate is often framed in terms of whether or not Indigenous cultures are still using traditi...

I investigate the relationship between Indigenous Knowledge and Western approaches to ecological and evolutionary research . It is clear that Indigenous approaches deal with research without rejecting ethical and spiritual questions. The Indigenous principle All Things are Related is a fundamental premise of Evolutionary thinking, and the Indigenou...

This chapter discusses the history of the process of domestication conceptually and considers the meaning of the terms domestic , wild , and tame and how the concept of feral fits within this framework. It explores differences among traits in generating phenotypes, including the classic Russian studies on fox behavior and morphology. Domestic dogs...

This chapter examines how many types of “dog,” including AKC (American Kennel Club) registered breeds, can be mistaken for wolves by people who have stereotypical ideas of what a wolf is, including some wolf biologists. It deconstructs the concept of “experts” who attempt to make such distinctions, including those who advise state and federal legis...

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the relationship between humans and wolves. The relationship began as coevolutionary, with the species cooperating at times but also capable of functioning independently. This state of affairs dominated early stages of the relationship between the two species and may have persisted for 20,000 years...

This book changes the narrative about how wolves became dogs and in turn, humanity's best friend. Rather than describe how people mastered and tamed an aggressive, dangerous species, the authors describe coevolution and mutualism. Wolves, particularly ones shunned by their packs, most likely initiated the relationship with Paleolithic humans, formi...

This chapter discusses the bonds and relationships that exist between humans and different types of canids. A crucial point is that the social bond between humans and wolves that changed into domestic dogs is the source of both major pleasures and major conflicts between humans and their canid companions. Large domestic dogs have the anatomy of ser...

This chapter discusses the history of humans and canids in Asia. The history of Western civilization reveals a long-standing tradition of demonizing or dehumanizing other peoples, especially peoples considered as potential rivals for territory or resources. In contemporary culture, this attitude manifests itself in the entertainment industry's obse...

This chapter explores the historical relationship between Indigenous Americans and wolves illustrated through the stories of Indigenous peoples of North America, especially on the Great Plains and the Intermountain West. Tribal accounts have not been previously employed in scholarly examinations of the origins of “dogs” or studies of domestication....

This chapter examines what it means to be human, a member of the biological species Homo sapiens . Comparing humans to a wide range of primates, it shows that no other species has a similar social structure, with social groups of varying sizes built around nuclear families. Moreover, it explores how these traits may have been shaped by humans' shar...

This concluding chapter assesses the great enigma of the first domestication: wolves and dogs are so affectionate and seem willing, if not driven, to create strong and persistent social bonds that it becomes easy for humans to anthropomorphize and idealize these four-leggeds that share their lives so easily. Yet they remain predators, highly evolve...

This chapter discusses the interpretations of the meanings of the concepts of “wolf,” “dog,” and “wolf-dog” from an evolutionary perspective. Much literature on dogs shows similar simplistic, often mistaken, assumptions concerning the processes by which dogs evolved from wolves. Most people expect that there is some clear line that exists between t...

This chapter focuses on an intriguing aspect of the relationship of humans with wolves in North America and parts of eastern Siberia—that wolves are considered “creator” figures, suggesting that they played an important role in the way humans conceived of themselves as they adapted to new environmental conditions. Thus, wolves could function as bot...

This chapter reviews the study of cooperative behavior between species, with emphasis on examples of cooperative hunting found in a wide range of species. Seen in this context, the idea of cooperative hunting between humans and wolves that evolved into present relationships with dogs does not seem unusual or surprising. The chapter then critiques t...

This chapter examines the distinctive situation in Australia, where Homo sapiens and dingoes coexisted for several thousand years. These two species were the only large placental mammals on a continent dominated by marsupial mammals and large reptiles. The dingo group represents a unique branch of canid domestication; they live independently, eithe...

This chapter focuses on archaeological research and its role in explaining the transformation from wolf to dog, addressing why this topic is controversial: the tendency to identify wolf remains found in archaeological sites as evidence of either interlopers or human killing overshadows the alternate possibility of social bonding between humans and...

p>Use of metaphor embodies myth in Western science and Native American traditional knowledge traditions about understanding the “natural” world and the nonhuman “other.” Using personal history, I compare a myth/metaphor from each intellectual tradition that shaped my thinking. Cultural trains of thought and metaphors impacted these myths and shaped...

I examine similarities among the ways of thinking concerning the natural world of Indigenous peoples of North America and Australia and two aspects of Western Science from different historical periods. The first comparison is with constructal theory, a set of ideas and models recently developed to explain how ‘design’ arises in both biotic and abio...

We examine the historical relationship between humans and wolves as illustrated through stories of North American Indigenous Peoples, especially the Great Plains and Intermountain West, exemplified by Cheyenne, Lakota, Blackfoot, Pawnee, and Shoshone peoples. Indigenous stories have not been employed in scholarly examinations of the origins of ‘dog...

It is well established that indigenous peoples, both in North America and around the world, have extensive knowledge of plant ecology through their use of these organisms for food, medicine, construction materials, and in numerous ceremonies. This knowledge is rooted in centuries, in some cases millennia, of experience. We examine the cultural and...

Review of:Do Fish Feel Pain? Victoria Braithwaite. 2010. Oxford University Press, New York. Pp. 256. $35.00 (hardcover). ISBN 9780199551200.How Animals Grieve. Barbara J. King. 2013. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Pp. 208, 7 halftones. $25.00 (cloth). ISBN 9780226436944.

Review of Explorations in Ethnobiology: The Legacy of Amadeo Rea. Marsha Quinlan and Dana Lepofsky, eds. 2013. Society of Ethnobiology, Denton, TX. Pp. 310, color illustrations, maps, tables. $56.95 (paperback). ISBN 978‐0988733008.

Review of:Do Fish Feel Pain? Victoria Braithwaite. 2010. Oxford University Press, New York. Pp. 256. $35.00 (hardcover). ISBN 9780199551200.How Animals Grieve. Barbara J. King. 2013. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Pp. 208, 7 halftones. $25.00 (cloth). ISBN 9780226436944.

Review of Human Impacts on Seals, Sea Lions, and Sea Otters: Integrating Archaeology and Ecology of the Northeast Pacific. Todd J. Braje and Torben C. Rick, editors. 2011. University of California Press, Berkeley. Pp. 328. $65.00 (hardcover). ISBN 9780520267268.

Effects of extreme weather due to the changing global climate are evidenced in significant direct and indirect costs around the world, with long lasting consequences for local communities and their environment. Increasing torrential rains and runoff have led to landslides and floods, which result in high fatalities in areas lacking proper land mana...

Review of Forms of Becoming: The Evolutionary Biology of Development. Alessandro Minelli. 2009. Princeton University Press, Princeton and London. Pp. 242, 17 line drawings. US$29.95 (cloth). ISBN 9780691135687.

Review of Forms of Becoming: The Evolutionary Biology of Development. Alessandro Minelli. 2009. Princeton University Press, Princeton and London. Pp. 242, 17 line drawings. US$29.95 (cloth). ISBN 9780691135687.

Review of Paradise Found: Nature in America at the Time of Discovery. Steve Nicholls. 2009. University of Chicago Press, New York and London. Pp. 536. ISBN10: 0226583406 ISBN13: 978-0226583402.

Review of Paradise Found: Nature in America at the Time of Discovery. Steve Nicholls. 2009. University of Chicago Press, New York and London. Pp. 536. ISBN10: 0226583406 ISBN13: 978-0226583402.

Being Native to a Changeable PlaceThe Concept of PersonhoodAttitudes Towards PredatorsThe Nature of CreatorsReferences

Indigenous ways of understanding and interacting with the natural world are characterized as Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), which derives from emphasizing relationships and connections among species. This book examines TEK and its strengths in relation to Western ecological knowledge and evolutionary philosophy. Pierotti takes a look at th...

Management schemes for wildlife are often unsuccessful in maintaining healthy, sustainable populations, especially approaches based on Maximum Sustainable Yield, which fail to account for variation in reproductive output. North American Indigenous hunters had considerable knowledge about the dynamics of local populations and were aware that they we...

Adoption of money-centred business practices leaves academia open to same abuses.

We studied reproductive performance, diet choice, and habitat selection in Western Gulls, Larus occidentalismover a 22-year period in five colonies along the coast of California. These included colonies with heavy (Alcatraz, Anacapa), moderate (Moss Landing), and relatively little (Southeast Farallon, Santa Barbara Island) urban influence. General...

There has been considerable debate in the study of hybrid zones as to whether hybrids may be superior to parental types within the area of contact (bounded hybrid superiority). In birds, naturally occurring hybridization is relatively common, and hybridization within this group always involves mate choice. If hybrids are superior, females choosing...

Contemporary Western attitudes concerning the management of natural re- sources, treatment of nonhuman animals, and the natural world emerge from traditions derived from Western European philosophy, i.e., they assume that humans are autonomous from, and in control of, the natural world. A different approach is presented by Traditional Ecological Kn...

We compared the density and spatial distribution of four small mammal species (Microtus ochrogaster, Peromyscus maniculatus, Sigmodon hispidus, and P. leucopus) along with general measures of an old field plant community across two successional phases (1984-1986 and 1994-1996) of an experimental study of fragmentation in eastern Kansas. During the...

We compared the density and spatial distribution of four small mammal species (Microtus ochrogaster, Peromyscus maniculatus, Sigmodon hispidus, and P. leucopus) along with general measures of an old field plant community across two successional phases (1984-1986 and 1994-1996) of an experimental study of fragmentation in eastern Kansas. During the...

We documented male and female parental roles of a monogamous fish, the spotted tilapia, Tilapia mariae, in channelized rivers in southern Florida, where this species dominated the fish fauna within 10 years of their introduction. Clearly differentiated parental roles existed between males and females, with females performing nearly all tending of e...

Numerous studies reveal strong, positive skews in long-term breeding performance among free-living animals, yet few studies explore the mechanisms underlying such variation. We examine the results of a 12-yr study of a population of Western Gulls, Larus occidentalis. Of 112 pairs for which we have either long-term (≥5 yr) or lifetime reproductive o...

Landscape characteristics, such as the spatial arrangement and size of habitat patches, can affect localized ecological patterns and processes (Forman and Gordon 1986, Usher 1987, Danielson 1991, Saunders et al. 1991, Wiens et al. 1993, Brown 1995, Turner et al. 1995, Wiens 1995, Holt and Debinski 1999). Small scale patterns in abundance or reprodu...

Nature is the international weekly journal of science: a magazine style journal that publishes full-length research papers in all disciplines of science, as well as News and Views, reviews, news, features, commentaries, web focuses and more, covering all branches of science and how science impacts upon all aspects of society and life.

White-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) and deer mice (P. maniculatus) were studied under both allotopic and syntopic conditions in northeastern Kansas. These species typically occupy different habitats with the slightly larger P. leucopus inhabiting wooded areas, and the smaller P. maniculatus inhabiting grasslands. We recorded external measuremen...

Presents evidence that Native peoples' profound understanding of ecology, the nature of individuality, and resulting differences in survival and reproduction led them to develop ideas of evolution through natural selection long before Europeans. Suggests that in order to survive, Native Americans must not allow Western ways of thought, which are di...

Discusses the traditional Native American understanding that all things in nature are connected, and explores how this is similar to, and perhaps helped to shape, the Western scientific understanding of the science of ecology. Some relationships in nature described in Native stories are just now being "discovered" to be true by Western ecologists....

In recent years, a question has arisen as to whether male and female investigators view natural phenomena in the same way. There could be differences in the research questions asked, the type of data collected, or the way in which a particular datum or observation is interpreted (Fox-Keller, 1985), leading to the possibility that male domination of...

During contests in Western Gulls, Larus occidentalis, we examined patterns of aggression in relation to sex, age class, and territorial status. Data were collected on agonistic contests during parts of three reproductive seasons on Southeast Farallon Island. This colony has dense nesting territories and appears to be near saturation, making breedin...

The Herring Gull, perhaps the most common and familiar gull of the northeastern United States and western Europe, is a large white-headed gull that in-habits shorelines of oceans, seas, lakes, and large rivers. Its circumboreal breeding range includes much of Europe and Central Asia. In North America it breeds along the Atlantic Coast from Cape Hat...

Hybridization within genera occurs more frequently in avian families and subfamilies where there is considerable male parental investment, less frequently in families with moderate levels of male parental investment, and rarely in lineages where males con-tribute only genetic material to their offspring. In addition, genera that show considerable m...

Nocturnality, the habit of being active during darkness, has traditionally been viewed as characteristic of a minority of bird species, with the great majority being considered entirely diurnal. Primary examples of activity at night are found in the Apterigiformes, Strigiformes, Caprimulgiformes, and Apodiformes (Thomson, 1985; Martin, 1990). In th...

Considerable attention has been paid to the phenomenon of infanticide in recent years. Five functional categories of infanticide have been defined. Here I concentrate on those that either have been described as the outcome of possible competition for limited resources or have by default been classified is the result of social pathology. Many of the...