Dogs in Acient Egypt

Egypt vs. USA vs. China

  

In ancient Egypt, dogs were domesticated and used for hunting, guarding, and even as household pets. This is evident through the findings of art in the Egyptian civilization. For example, cave drawings dating back to 7000 B.C. show men and women hunting alongside with domesticated dogs.(Indigo) One of the most noteworthy comparisons to China is seen through the Anubis, a jackal-headed Egyptian god with the body of human. Because dogs were considered the children of Anubis, killing canines was illegal. Interestingly, this parallels American law because the USA enforces restrictions on killing dogs as well. Even though it existed thousands of years ago on a continent thousands of miles away, why does the ancient Egypt civilization share this similarity with America? The answer may be explained by symbolic interactionism.

Anubis, jackal-headed Egyptian god.

Symbolic Interactionism

In his textbook, Dalton Conley defines symbolic interactionism as “a micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people’s actions”. Americans have shared the meaning of dogs as affectionate, friendly, and loyal animals which has driven their action to take them in as household pets and even consider them a part of their family since they exhibit those human-like characteristics. Similarly, Egyptians have shared the meaning with one another of dogs as sacred and as the children of Anubis, rendering it illegal to kill dogs but rather take them in as pets.  In comparison, people in China don’t share the same meaning of the dog with Egyptians or Americans and therefore, they act differently towards dogs.