What If Native Americans Domesticated Beasts Of Burden?

Peccaries bear similar ecological and morphological traits to pigs, but are even more social and perhaps display primate levels of social cohesion. Recent field observations have shown a group of Collared Peccaries in Arizona repeatedly visiting a recently dead group member, defending the carcass, simply standing around it and attempting lift the deceased peccary up again. This included social calls and sleeping next to the body(something not easily explained by curiosity or territorial instincts). These indications of "mourning", at least understanding and responding to loss, have certain parallels not to pigs(that commonly eat dead mates and siblings)- but instead to canids. This is why it is probably a more apt comparison of naturally curious, commonly urban and socially bonded peccaries to wolves, and by extension dogs. They already are kept as both pets and food sources across their natural range, and have definitely encountered prehistoric human activities(not only have peccaries been found burnt and eaten in middens, their tooth marks are especially common in ancient and modern waste). They would be primary opportunities for a social-bonding, loyal pack animal. Like dogs, hunting support is not impossible. They have in large groups attacked and even killed llamas, cattle or humans when provoked. Unlike dogs, however, they are omnivorous and primarily herbivorous, so they're much more likely to support high populations in more rural or forested areas. Of the three known species, the Collared Peccary is the most adaptable and widespread(possibly more intelligent too), the White-Lipped species is mainly frugivorous and of much lower natural population density, and the much more primitive Chacoan Peccary is only found in the relatively small Gran Chaco and numbers 3000 individuals in total. Interestingly enough, the partially confirmed existence of a fourth, Giant Peccary from the Amazon has been filmed multiple times and definitely exists within the Amazon. It has yet to have a preserved specimen studied. It appears to live in only pairs and is around 1.2m long. These could serve as a pig equivalent if domesticated, perhaps by the ancestors to the Marajoara Culture.
all of which makes you wonder just why they weren't domesticated in OTL by the settled farmer natives... not quite dog-like enough, a little too aggressive?
 
all of which makes you wonder just why they weren't domesticated in OTL by the settled farmer natives... not quite dog-like enough, a little too aggressive?
They are still kept partially tamed as food and waste disposal in many South and Central American cities today, and probably provided a similar urban fauna within the past. However peccaries were avoided by certain cultures for their scavenging habits. It may simply be that fully domesticated varieties have gone extinct and unrecorded(like the Fuegian Dog), gone feral or simply there was never the serendipity that always characterizes innovation and domestication. It may simply be that social concept and ambition to fully pursue domesticated animals as a feature for society wasn't present. Many native groups within more isolated regions did not even have dogs for thousands of years, and flourished nonetheless. Ultimately it falls to simple want, need and chance.
 
all of which makes you wonder just why they weren't domesticated in OTL by the settled farmer natives... not quite dog-like enough, a little too aggressive?

IMO, one critical factor could be birthrate. Collared peccaries rarely give birth to more than 3 young at a time; wild boars give birth to 4-6 young. It could be that the dangers of domesticating wild boars were accepted by neolithic farmers because they could produce a lot of meat through their elevated birthrate, whereas the slower birthrate of the collared peccary made it less of a good investment.

Of course, and perhaps I just like this opinion because it benefits domestication timelines, I think random freaking chance is a big factor in prehistoric extinctions, non-extinctions and domestication. As a website of generally nerdy people we like to hunt deep for the reason why horses went extinct in the Pampas but not the Steppe, or why pigs but not peccaries were domesticated, but ultimately the answer may just be "shit happened here, but not there".
 
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