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Feb. 22nd, 2018 03:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lliiraSo in the Great Food Internet Debates, which are as illuminating as most internet debates, there are two extremist camps, both alike in foolishness.
One says humans didn't evolve eating plants. We were mighty (macho) hunters always. The other says we didn't evolve eating meat. We were peaceful (girly) plant-eaters. As with all dumbass internet extremists, one side in which the dumbasses have embedded themselves can't see anything but the dumbasses on the other side. Someone needs to write a PhD thesis on this as a microcosm of the way human groups interact.
But anyway, my theory is that we were neither brave and noble hunters nor peaceful and noble gatherers. I think we were scavengers. Sneaking up and grabbing the leftover bones and cracking them open. Stealing eggs from nests. (Eggs are an utterly amazing food for humans when the birds get to live outside in the sunshine and eat bugs along with seeds.) Gleaning berries and nuts and tubers and whatnot -- obviously we can't digest the range of plants herbivores can. But we're not great at digesting fresh raw meat either. Yet nearly all cultures I've read about had some kind of rotten meat as a staple.
And look at how soft and weak we are as individuals, yet how mighty we are in large groups. Like hyenas.
One says humans didn't evolve eating plants. We were mighty (macho) hunters always. The other says we didn't evolve eating meat. We were peaceful (girly) plant-eaters. As with all dumbass internet extremists, one side in which the dumbasses have embedded themselves can't see anything but the dumbasses on the other side. Someone needs to write a PhD thesis on this as a microcosm of the way human groups interact.
But anyway, my theory is that we were neither brave and noble hunters nor peaceful and noble gatherers. I think we were scavengers. Sneaking up and grabbing the leftover bones and cracking them open. Stealing eggs from nests. (Eggs are an utterly amazing food for humans when the birds get to live outside in the sunshine and eat bugs along with seeds.) Gleaning berries and nuts and tubers and whatnot -- obviously we can't digest the range of plants herbivores can. But we're not great at digesting fresh raw meat either. Yet nearly all cultures I've read about had some kind of rotten meat as a staple.
And look at how soft and weak we are as individuals, yet how mighty we are in large groups. Like hyenas.
