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Why Do People Love Their Pets? 2 4 3 individualism o f modern western societies with its emphasis on romantic love (Triandis 1995). 2 Such suggestions may have superficial appeal in view of the apparently greater popularity o f pet keeping in affluent western societies. How- ever, as Serpell (1986, 1987) has convincingly argued, it is a view that cannot account for the more widespread occurrence of pet ownership, both geographically and historically, as indicated by archeological, historical, and anthropological evi- dence. The association between humans and dogs is an ancient one. There is fossil ev- idence for an association between H o m o erectus and a wolf-like canid half a million years ago (Messent and Serpell 1981). Evidence for the domestication of dogs goes back to beyond 12,000 years ago (Clutton-Brock 1977; Musil 1970). Davis and Valla (1978) described three canid finds from the Natufians, hunter-gatherers in Is- rael 12,000 years ago, including a puppy buried with a human who was placed with his hand around the dog. Comparative evidence indicates that the specimen was likely to have been a domesticated dog rather than a wolf, and the arrangement o f the burial provides, in the authors' words, "proof that an affectionate rather than gastronomic relationship existed between it and the buried person" (p. 610). Such early fossil evidence has led several reviewers to argue that the domestication of dogs may have begun with keeping them for pets rather than for other purposes (Clutton-Brock 1977; Messent and Serpell 1981; Savishinsky 1983). There is also present-day evidence that dogs may be kept by hunter-gatherers and yet not be used for hunting (Messent and Serpell 1981). The western-centered view of pet ownership is also inconsistent with the avail- able historical and anthropological record (Messent and Serpell 1981; Savishinsky 1983, Serpell 1986, 1987). Pet ownership is, and has been, widespread in many dif- ferent societies. It was, for example, common among the ruling classes o f ancient Greece and Rome, and among rulers in Europe, China, Japan, and Africa. It became more widely distributed across social classes during the last century, although it may have been common among poorer people before then. From accounts by the early European explorers to those of more recent anthropologists, the available evi- dence indicates that pet keeping commonly occurs (and has occurred) in tribal soci- eties, for example, in North and South America, and in Australia. Although the evi- dence is not as quantitative and systematic as that for modern western societies, the descriptions are sufficiently consistent and unrelated to any ideological concerns for us to accept their overall impression, that pet keeping was and is widespread. As Serpell (1987) noted, anthropologists have recorded, but have generally not at- tempted to explain, the wide distribution of pet ownership. He argued that a narrow explanation, related to modern western conditions, could not account for this wide occurrence of pet ownership, since a clear distinction is made between pet animals and those used for food or work in all societies for which there is evidence. Throughout the descriptions of pet keeping in traditional societies reviewed by Ser- pell (1986) is a clear sense of love and affection towards pets, which is familiar from our own experiences of pet ownership. Indeed, the physical manifestations may go 2This possibility was suggested by a reviewer of this paper.