Exploring the Evolutionary History of Domestic Ferrets
The domestic ferret (Mustela putorius furo) offers an unconventional but fascinating and unique opportunity to explore the complexities and dynamism of human-animal relationships. Despite being widely used today as working animals, pets, and subjects in biomedical research, the history of ferrets is widely uncertain, complicated by a scarcity of archaeological evidence and ambiguities within the historic record. What is clear, however, is that ferrets are a particularly striking case of how narratives about where and when an animal was domesticated can be built upon ambiguous and limited evidence. I will reinvestigate these narratives through an interdisciplinary approach which weaves together historical, linguistic, archaeological, and genomic evidence. By harnessing the opportunity to investigate one of few domestication events occurring in the historic period, I hope to demonstrate the value of interdisciplinary research and uncover new insights into the domestication of ferrets – and domestication process more generally.
Date: 30 January 2025, 12:30
Venue: History Faculty, George Street OX1 2RL
Venue Details: Rees Davies Room
Speaker: Alice Dobinson (DPhil Archaeological Science)
Organising department: Faculty of History
Part of: Environmental History Working Group
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Belinda Clark