William wrote:

> How about this for a paraphrase: Perverts have *always* thought
> themselves
> humans, and the rest of us therefore lesser creature, for as long as
> there
> have been perverts.


As a paraphrase, it's rubbish.  As an argument, it's even worse.  The
point is simple.  According to the evidence we have, cooking is at least
as old as the human species.  How much older it may be is still unknown.


>  Remember that the paleolithic era ends only about 12,000
>
>> or so years ago,
>
>
> For whom? This seems one of the sweeping generalizations beloved of bad
> historians. How about the Australian abos, Inuit, Aryans, Semites,
> Dravidians etc.


The paleolithic *era* ended for humanity about 12,000 years ago when
agriculture began to be practiced and to displace the paleolithc way of
life.  I didn't claim that all paleolithic ways of life ended at that
time.  I need hardly add that all contemporary "paleolithic" peoples
cook food.  We don't know how far back into the pre-human era we have to
go before we get to paleo eaters of exclusively raw foods.  We do know
that cooking increases the number of plant foods available for consumption.

Todd Moody
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