-----Original Message-----
From: Geoffrey Purcell <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 11:07 pm
Subject: Re: A qustion for fans of Vilhjalmur Stefansson fans










 The problem with the notion that tubers were a mainstay of the Palaeolithic 
Diet is that most need to be cooked etc. in order to be remotely absorbable by 
the human body( a good  example being cassava, which is a staple food in many 
African countries and contains cyanide-based compounds when raw). So, it is 
highly unlikely that tubers were a significant part of the diet before c.250,000 
years ago, when cooking was invented. 



 

It's impossible to say when cooking was invented, only when evidence of cooking began to show up in the archaeological record.? I recollect from a human prehistory class many moons ago that the species has had fire for at least a million years.? Cooking of meat would show up in the form of burned bones.? Cooking of grains and legumes requires pottery.? But roots and tubers can just be pushed into the coals to roast.? 

Chimps have been known to go for certain roots during droughts when other food sources are scarce.? Perhaps the first cooking of roots happened by accident; they were dug up in the course of digging for some other reason (for some other root? for water?? to get an animal out of its burrow?) and then a wildfire came through.? After the fire, humans came back and noticed that bugs were going for the fire-transformed roots.? It was just the bugs that were food at first, but in the course of eating them the humans tasted some of the root itself, enjoyed it, didn't get sick from it,?? Thus it became part of the diet.? That's how I imagine it happened; I'm sure there are other possibilities.