The little foxes came out at eve to carry their bones away

[sovay]

Via cucumberseed: 16,500 years ago in Jordan, there were foxes buried in human graves. The authors of the original paper believe they might have been, if not precisely pets, then "potential domesticates . . . smaller and easier to control—although more skittish and timid—than the wolf. It seems likely that foxes could have shared a similar type of relationship with humans as wolves did, even if they were never truly domesticated." I will never make an archaeologist. I flashed on 'Uyun al-Hammam as a graveyard of kitsune: some buried in their human-shape, some in fox.

Comments

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

This is not surprising, given that wolves (future dog pool) are not abundant in that part of the world, whereas foxes and jackals are. Foxes, like coyotes, venture rather matter-of-factly into human habitats and can be quasi-tamed if taken young -- which of course implies killing their mother.

Moving of bones with selected accoutrements after a certain interval is a common custom in agrarian cultures with little cultivable land.

Also interesting, most Mediterranean myths don't have kitsune equivalents, though they have plenty of talking foxes. Foxes have too much personality to deign becoming shapeshifters. Like Coyote, Fox is her own person.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Also interesting, most Mediterranean myths don't have kitsune equivalents, though they have plenty of talking foxes. Foxes have too much personality to deign becoming shapeshifters.

Interesting. I would like to learn more. I need more time in my day for research.

Like Coyote, Fox is her own person.

This made me smile.

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

She is, you know -- coyotes and foxes are loners like cats, rather than pack animals like the rest of the dog family. And in Hellenic, foxes are "she".