On Sat, 31 May 2008 12:40 Jim Swayze wrote:

>You may be right that we're just another animal.  But, again, I'm
>simply trying to point out that it is a decidedly modern notion that
>we're *not* the pinnacle of creation.  All hunter gatherer groups
>everywhere have held in common this foundational assumption.

This is simply untrue, with a multitude of counter-examples
in the literature. I am not so bold as to claim I know what 
"all hunter-gatherer groups everywhere" believe, but my
reading is that the situation is more complex and nuanced.
If any "foundational assumption" can be found it is that humans
saw themselves as part of the total landscape in which they
participated and that this landscape was part biophysical
reality and part a mental creation though culture (as is ours).
That is, particular animals existed as co-habitants in the 
biophysical environment, but people also gave them 
supernatural roles or powers in the way their
understanding of their environment. Many myths tell of 
particular animals that are far wiser than humans and 
whose guidance enabled humans to survive in the face of threats. 

There is no hunter-gatherer world view I know of where 
humans place themselves at the pinnacle of the natural 
world - which comprises both the animate and inanimate. 
Rather they place themselves as inextricably interwoven 
in a world that is both natural and supernatural (in our terms).

It is the modern neolithic desert religions of Judaism, 
Islam and Christianity that are notable for their hierarchies 
in which humans stand over the natural world. To hunter-
gatherers this would be seen as flying in the face of their 
experience of the world, at once ridiculous and laughable
- if it were not also profoundly sacreligious.

And this is relevant to paleofood, too. If we see modern
industrial culture as superior to the natural world then
paleofood becomes an antiquated, quaint, irrelevant and
superseded notion. Transhumanism is just one exteme
tail of this hubristic view that human culture can 
transcend human biology. 

Although this is getting off the thread, it is worth noting
that life on earth is still wholly dependent on bacteria. If all
bacteria stopped working this minute, all humans would be
dead (painfully) within a week. Homo sapiens are just a 
peripheral late-comer to the story of life. Our stay on the
skin of this planet will be just a few thousandths the duration 
of bacteria's.

Keith