Man’s Best Frenemy

Lycanthropy doesn’t just mean men turning into wolves, or believing themselves to turn into wolves. The were-creature tends to take the form of the most fearsome predator in whatever respective culture it appears. India has were-tigers; Africa has were-crocodiles; Russia has were-bears. But the wolf, and the werewolf, are by far the most prevalent. Perhaps this is because the relationship between human beings and wolves is the longest, the most involved, and the most complicated. The wolf was the enemy of man, and then became man’s most invaluable ally. Primitive man hunted with wolves, ate with wolves, almost certainly emulated wolves. On the flip side, wolves hunted, killed, and ate primitive humans.

Some new evidence out of the Middle East (Jordan in particular)—rabbit bones—proves that by 14,000 years ago humans were already using, and were much dependent on, domesticated wolves. This would suggest that the “domestication”—let’s put that in quotation marks—had taken place earlier, possibly far earlier. But when exactly, and whether or not this domestication happened as the result of deliberate effort or by accident, remains unknown.

This domestication of wild canines occurred in the same area where the world’s oldest bread, bread that predates the growing of grain, was also recently discovered.

By The Evil Cheezman

WAYNE MILLER is the owner and creative director of EVIL CHEEZ PRODUCTIONS (www.evilcheezproductions.blogspot.com, www.facebook.com/evilcheezproductions), specializing in theatrical performances and haunted attractions. He has written, produced and directed (and occasionally acted in) over a dozen plays, most of them in the Horror and Crime genres. His first novel, THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF, is available for purchase at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/734763 MORTUI VELOCES SUNT!

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