On Fri, 19 Sep 2003 22:10 Ingrid Bauer/Jean-Claude Catry wrote:

>> >In experiments
>> >or real life, people eating mainly lean meat develop
>> >insatiable hunger. .... That explains why no hunter-
>> >gatherer tribe has ever shown to eat all-raw.
>>
>> I think the evidence is pretty clear that the Tasmanian
>> Aborigines gave up eating fish and using fire about
>> 2,500 years ago.  No one can say with any
>> certainty why, but it is a hot topic for
>> speculation and research here in Australia.
>
>i never heard of that .where can i find infos on
>it ? do you mean they started to eat raw ?
>what did they replace fish with ?
>
>jean-claude

Here are three references:

D Horton, "Tasmanian Adaptation" in Mankind, 12, 1979: 28-34

D Horton, "The Pure State of Nature" Allen and Unwin 2000

R Jones "The Tasmanian Paradox" in R Wright (ed.) Stone Tools as Cultural
Markers, ASIS, 1977.

As I said, this is a topic of speculation and continuing research.  So I
can't give you an answer in a nutshell.  Certainly, the Tasmanian
Aborigines ate mutton birds and their eggs as a staple.  The switch away
from fish may have been partly functional and then endorsed by taboos.

Check those references and let me know what you think.

Keith