To tame a thylacine: A case study on human-animal bonds and their impact on prosocial behavior in past Aboriginal Australian communities

Abstract

H. sapiens learned long ago to manipulate their environment, and one of the results of those learned skills was the ability to create cross-species communities. In order to maintain a positive relationship with another animal species, behaviors classified as prosocial would need to be a learned common culture within the community, and then extended to non-human animals with consistency. In this paper, evidence of the human-animal bond exists in rock art depictions of animals and dingo interments or burials performed by the ancestors of the Traditional Owners in Australia. Observed conflicts that resulted in the death of community members are cross- examined with the evidence of prosocial behaviors to discover that an association exists between prosocial behaviors seen extended to the local fauna of the area, and prosocial behaviors extended to other humans in the immediate area.