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Date: | Wed, 9 Jul 1997 08:06:10 -0600 |
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>Humans have apparently been using fire for at least 300,000 years, possibly
>more than 500,000 years.
This seems a bit cavalier given the nature of the research on fire? I have
tried to find definitive studies on the use of fire for cooking and found
that the issue hasn't been scrutinized much. Estimates are given from
20,000 ya to 500,000 ya based on particular fossil finds and analysis. In
each case that I have seen it is made clear that these estimates are crude
and may be speaking only about isolated cultures. At what date was every
human on the planet cooking; what were they cooking; and was it a step in a
positive direction or a double-edged sword?
Perhaps there is more definitive research out now regarding the origins of
cooking. I would love to look at it...
>Furthermore, peoples' lifespans went UP, not down, when they started
>cooking. So much for the instinctotherapy philosophy.
Again, my understanding is that this is an unsettled area of inquiry. The
lifespan of paleolithic humans is a topic of debate based on estimates from
a limited number of fossils. And of pre-paleolithic lifespans?
There has surely been some sort of adaption/tolerance to cooked food which
has occurred since the inception of cooking. But the experiments of
Vilhjalmur Stefansson, at the very least, appear to challenge the notion
that cooking may be a nutritional improvement.
Cheers,
Kirt
Kirt Nieft / Melisa Secola
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