2022 Volume 2 Pages 205-225
This paper describes and analyses how forest dwellers, especially the Baka hunter-gatherers of southeastern Cameroon, perceive and interact with dogs in daily life. I will also discuss the social and ecological contexts of how dogs are involved in the politics and economics of their host societies (i.e. hunter-gatherers and their neighbours). The relation of the Baka to dogs seems dichotomous between the forest and village environments, whereas people treat dogs as hunting and gathering partners in the forest, but tend to treat them maliciously, as ‘food thieves’, at their settlement. Sedentarisation and agriculturalization have continued for decades among the Baka. In addition, the recent increase in the pressure of conservation has facilitated this trend. Changes in the subsistence activities of human societies are reflected in the diet of dogs and their marginalisation at human settlements. Analysis of the causes of canine death suggested a heavy impact of human activities on dog mortality. In tropical forest environments, the survival of dogs independent of humans seems difficult; consequently, their lifespan, health, and population dynamics are related to the ecology of their human host population.
