The invention of the bow and arrow—and getting hunting dogs—actually helped early societies break away from strict, bossy leaders.
March 25, 2026
Original Paper
Dogs and the Transformation of Coast Salish Hunting Teams: An Anarchist and Multispecies Approach
SSRN · 6464360
The Takeaway
Before the bow, hunting required large human teams led by dominant chiefs who controlled how food was distributed. Dogs acted as 'non-human teammates' that provided the necessary tracking skills to allow individuals or pairs to hunt successfully on their own, enabling economic autonomy and a move toward anarchist social structures.
From the abstract
In the Coast Salish region, ethnographers documented how deer hunting mostly was done byindividual bowhunters or as two-person teams. However, this subsistence organization was unlikely prior to the adoption of the bow and arrow, ca. 1600 BP. Before then, spears afforded a one-shot chance at prey. Hence, it was common to hunt in groups, where multiple hunters could provide shots, as was the case with sea lion hunting. e main limitation of such group efforts was that such activities were headed by