Bronwen wrote:
> there is alot of processing involved in making acorns edible- you can't
just
> "get them with a sharp stick" - comments?
> wild oats- what are they?  and grass seeds?  these things sound very much
> like- gasp..GRAINS.
> so i dont know what I am saying- it seems people used quite a bit of
native
> grains and alot of processing, am I wrong?

Acorns require processing to remove the tannins and grass seeds require a
lot of energy to process.  Generally true but you need to ask yourself how
long have they been processing these plants and is it in response to the
decrease in available wildlife because of population pressure or whatever.
Australian Aborigines processed an awful lot of toxic seeds and tubers to
remove poisons, but evidence for this is only 2000 years (or so) old.

So did they only start exploiting these foods after other primary foods
(meat, etc) had dimnished in their diet through overhunting, climatic
changes, population pressures etc.  Would they have bothered with these
foods if they had other alternatives.  I don't know for sure but I think
there is some evidence for it.

Sean