Re Toba:- Not too sure of this. I tend to be a big sceptic of Catastrophism as a theory as there are a number of very dodgy people associated with it(eg:- Von Daniken and Velikovsky!).
Re lake district:- At Easter, there's deep banks of snow all around, very little firewood above a certain altitude, very strong winds come whistling down the valleys, very easily capable of snuffing out a flame etc. That's only when it's relatively calm - when the inevitable blizzards come (even at Easter), I'm sure it's even more difficult to start a fire out in the open.
Re climate:- While some palaeos lived in pleasant climates, others also lived in extremely harsh climates where cooking food would have been an awkward choice. I can't help thinking that part of the reason why the Inuit ate so much raw food was because it was, in certain situations, just too much hassle to cook food in such a climate(eg:- during shortages of animal-derived oils for cooking)
Re free time:- Which palaeoanthropologists claim a period of only 4 hours per day? That seems ridiculously low, and probably based on very unusual modern hunter-gatherers in the tropics, with plentiful access to wild vegetables/fruits and the like. Even in the latter scenario, 4 hours is too small, IMO. I mean, it's a fact that famines were common-place among more modern hunter-gatherers, and the feast-and-famine notion has been routinely ascribed to Palaeolithic tribes by many researchers. Frequent famine, by its very definition, implies that hunter-gathererers had to spend vast amounts of time hunting for food that wasn't there for the most part, so they couldn't just have sat around all day or they would have all died of starvation.
Plus, human culture is so complicated(even in the Palaeolithic), that any sparse free time , other than hunting/gathering, would have been given over to any number of activities, not just cooking food. Abd, like I said, judging from Inuit etc. habits re eating raw meats right on the spot instead of taking them home, Palaeo tribespeople likely only ate cooked-foods when it was convenient(ie when they had the time) and, otherwise, just ate the foods raw.
There is some claim by some researchers that eating cooked-food involved such a tremendous waste of time each day that it enabled the society/culture of humans to become more complex and advanced as they all had to interact during that preparation-time. There's no evidence for this theory as yet, but it's interesting as there has been a recent clamour by social scientists for more family meals as it's been argued that eating (cooked-) food alone leads to a lack of social bonding etc. Of course, scoial bonding can also involve the consumption of raw food, so...
Re palaeolithic culture and cooking comment:- Well, I wasn't talking about cooking, merely pointing out that humans do rather more than eat each day, and that human culture invovles a great deal more than diet(I'm sure, even without access to TV and video-games, that Palaeo tribespeople didn't just stare into space or eat, most of the time!). And, before the advent of cooking, Palaeo tribespeople wouldn't even have had cooking at all, as part of their lifestyle/culture.
Geoff
> Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 17:40:38 -0600
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Enzymes and cooking (was Re: PALEOFOOD Digest - 29 May 2009...)
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> >I don't believe in a garden of eden theory=2C . I was referring to the actu=
> >al scientific research=2C you'll find that there was an explosion in innov=
> >ation(re invention of nets/traps etc.) c. 60=2C000 years ago=2C with very l=
>
> I assume you are aware of the Toba population bottleneck theory - that a catastrophic volcanic eruption reduced the human population to several thousand individuals roughly 70,000 years ago? That would explain a lot on both sides of the issue. For instance, it has been said that modern humans do not display the genetic variations expected in a species hundreds of thousands of years old - which makes sense if the genetic base pool was indeed reduced to a minimum. It's quite possible that the small pocket(s) of survivors had to become more innovative in order to survive. It's also possible that the groups who did survive were also regular users (and abusers) of the evil fire.
>
> But, this is all speculation, of course.
>
> >e fires going out=2C try lighting a fire in the lake district at easter. Ev=
> >en when using matches etc.=2C and the partial protection of a tent-door on =
> >one side=2C it's a living hell trying to keep a fire going.
>
> I'm sorry, but I have no experience in the "lake district" (I don't even know where it is). But, I doubt it's too much different from keeping a fire going on the peaks of the Sawtooth Wilderness in Idaho. However, I find it doubtful any indigenous humans would settle in an area with raging winds and little or no fuel. Perhaps they'd pass through on hunting trips, but would eventually return home to a much better camp.
>
> > I don't buy the notion that =
> >Palaeo peoples had all this spare time. For one thing=2C hunting isn't all =
> >that easy(one has to cope with famine=2C climate=2Cillness etc.=2C and it t=
> >akes a hell of a lot of time for primitive hunters to track wild animals=2C=
>
> You'll have to take that up with the experts who have posted otherwise. Like I said, the estimates were 4 hours per day taking care of survival needs. To be fair I doubled it. Allowing for 10 hours of sleep each day, that sill leaves 6-8 hours of "free" time.
>
> >They did have a culture of their own=2C the later=
> > palaeolithic peoples had cave-paintings /religious observances etc.
>
> So, paleolithic culture and religion preclude cooking?
>
> > Anoth=
> >er obvious point is that the Inuit and other tribes would often eat some pa=
> >rts of the kill right on the spot where the carcass lay=2C rather than taki=
>
> Probably taking it back to camp for a big feast around the fire :)
>
> >ng every piece of it back to be laboriously cooked. At any rate=2C cooking =
> >can't be seen as less of a hassle than eating a food raw.
>
> As I believe was pointed out yesterday - it's common for the hunters to eat raw at the kill site and then take it back to camp for prep/cooking.
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