>You have asserted that, but without support.  What specifc >information do
you have about the calories involved in hunting >and gathering?
you're getting silly again Todd, it's a bad habit. remember that paleo
tribes organise their calendar round the prize food of the period. one fat
emu gives  say 100,000 calories. one dugong probably 500,000.  one salmon
several thousand. how many yams do you have to dig up to get these amounts?


> You claimed that yams are a famine food, i.e., a food that >would be
ignored except when animal foods are unavailable.
but i resiled from this when I remembered that if women dont go hunting they
can collect yams while they are looking for eggs etc. if the calories
yielded exceeds input it makes sense to do so.

>We've discussed on more than one occasion Jared Diamond's >description of
living with hunter-gatherers in New
>Guinea, and how the bulk of the food came from plant gathering.
I'm glad you raised this. these are the same people who live on the edge of
starvation due to lack of animal proteins? who forage for spiders in
desparation? the same papuans with rust red hair from deficiencies?

I'll look up the yams you mentioned.

andrew