Andrew Millard <[log in to unmask]> said:

> Subject: Cooking eggs
>
> On Thu, 16 Oct 1997, Loren Cordain <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > There is little doubt that pre-agricultural man would have consumed wild
> > bird eggs when they were seasonally available, and for most of man's
> > history they would have been consumed raw, because fire was not in use.
>
> What is meant by "most of man's history"? If you mean the period of
> existence of anatomically modern humans then there is good evidence for
> the use of fire for most of that 100,000 year period.

[snip]

>
> It seems to me that you cannot deny that fire has been available for a
> significant amount of evolutionary time.

But if this was the period of the existence of modern man, anatomically
like us, what is the evidence for much evolution during this period?  This
is surely rather a period of _non-evolutionary_ time, during which the
ability to digect has not altered very much?  If people could or could
not eat certain foods to advantage then, what is the evidence this has
changed since 100 000 BP?

Dick Bird
School of Behavioural and Environmental Sciences
University of Norhtumbria
UK
NE1 8ST