Wikipedia

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human is a 2009 book by British primatologist Richard Wrangham, published by Profile Books in England, and Basic Books in the US. It argues the hypothesis that cooking food was an essential element in the physiological evolution of human beings. It was shortlisted for the 2010 Samuel Johnson Prize.

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
September 2009 Profile books edition
AuthorRichard Wrangham
CountryUK
LanguageEnglish
GenreSociocultural evolution Anthropology
PublisherProfile Books
Publication date
September 2009
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Pages320
ISBN978-1-84668-285-8

History of the idea edit

Eighteenth-century writers noted already that "people cooked their meat, rather than eating it raw like animals". Oliver Goldsmith considered that "of all other animals, we spend the least time in eating; this is one of the great distinctions between us and the brute creation". In 1999, Wrangham published the first version of the hypothesis in Current Anthropology.[1] A short outline of the hypothesis was presented by John Allman (2000)[2] presumably based upon Wrangham (1999).

Overview edit

Humans (species in the genus Homo) are the only animals that cook their food, and Wrangham argues Homo erectus emerged about two million years ago as a result of this unique trait. Cooking had profound evolutionary effect because it increased food efficiency, which allowed human ancestors to spend less time foraging, chewing, and digesting. H. erectus developed a smaller, more efficient digestive tract, which freed up energy to enable larger brain growth. Wrangham also argues that cooking and control of fire generally affected species development by providing warmth and helping to fend off predators, which helped human ancestors adapt to a ground-based lifestyle. Wrangham points out that humans are highly evolved for eating cooked food and cannot maintain reproductive fitness with raw food.[3]

Reception edit

Positive edit

Book reviewers gave Catching Fire generally positive reviews. The New York Times called it "a rare thing: a slim book - the text itself is a mere 207 pages - that contains serious science, yet is related in direct, no-nonsense prose",[4] and the Telegraph (UK) called it "that rare thing, an exhilarating science book".[5]

Negative edit

Critics of the cooking hypothesis question whether archaeological evidence supports the view that cooking fires began long enough ago to confirm Wrangham's findings.[6] The traditional explanation is that human ancestors scavenged carcasses for high-quality food that preceded the evolutionary shift to smaller guts and larger brains.[7]

Critics of the hypothesis argue that while a linear increase in brain volume of the genus Homo is seen over time, adding fire control and cooking does not add anything meaningful to the data. Species such as H. ergaster existed with large brain volumes during time periods with little to no evidence of fire for cooking. Little variation exists in the brain sizes of H. erectus dated from periods of weak and strong evidence for cooking.[8] An experiment involving mice fed raw versus cooked meat found that cooking meat did not increase the amount of calories taken up by mice, leading to the study's conclusion that the energetic gain is the same, if not greater, in raw meat diets than cooked meats.[9] Studies such as this and others have led to criticisms of the hypothesis that state that the increases in human brain-size occurred well before the advent of cooking due to a shift away from the consumption of nuts and berries to the consumption of meat.[10][11] Other anthropologists argue that the evidence suggests that cooking fires began in earnest only 250,000 BP, when ancient hearths, earth ovens, burned animal bones, and flint appear across Europe and the Middle East.[6]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Wrangham, Richard W.; Jones, James Holland; Laden, Greg; Pilbeam, David; Conklin‐Brittain, NancyLou (Dec 1999). "The Raw and the Stolen". Current Anthropology. 40 (5): 567–594. doi:10.1086/300083. ISSN 0011-3204. PMID 10539941. S2CID 82271116.
  2. ^ John Allman (2000) Evolving Brains, Scientific American Library, page 194.
  3. ^ Garner, Dwight (2009-05-26). "Why Are Humans Different From All Other Apes? It's the Cooking, Stupid". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-06-12.
  4. ^ Dwight Garner, "Why Are Humans Different From All Other Apes? It's the Cooking, Stupid", New York Times, May 26, 2009
  5. ^ Simon Ings, "Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham: review", the Telegraph, October 4, 2009
  6. ^ a b Pennisi, Elizabeth (March 26, 1999). "Human evolution: Did Cooked Tubers Spur the Evolution of Big Brains?". Science. 283 (5410): 2004–2005. doi:10.1126/science.283.5410.2004. PMID 10206901. S2CID 39775701. Archived from the original on 2011-03-10.
  7. ^ Pennisi: Did Cooked Tubers Spur the Evolution of Big Brains? Archived March 10, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Gowlett, J. a. J. (5 June 2016). "The discovery of fire by humans: a long and convoluted process". Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. 371 (1696): 20150164. doi:10.1098/rstb.2015.0164. ISSN 0962-8436. PMC 4874402. PMID 27216521.
  9. ^ Cornélio, Alianda; et al. (2016). "Human Brain Expansion during Evolution Is Independent of Fire Control and Cooking". Frontiers in Neuroscience. 10: 167. doi:10.3389/fnins.2016.00167. PMC 4842772. PMID 27199631.
  10. ^ "Meat-eating was essential for human evolution, says UC Berkeley anthropologist specializing in diet". 14 June 1999. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
  11. ^ Mann, Neil (15 August 2007). "Meat in the human diet: An anthropological perspective". Nutrition & Dietetics. 64 (Supplement s4): 102–107. doi:10.1111/j.1747-0080.2007.00194.x.

Further reading edit

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