On Wed, 6 Dec 2000 06:03:48 -0500, Philip Thrift <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>Another article on homo erectus hearths and cooking:
>
>   http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/0599toc/5feature3-fire.shtml
>
>The two adaptations that appear to be key in our evolution are:
>
> * big game use
> * cooking (meat certainly)
>

Meat certainly?

If homo erectus could already start fires, as your article suggests,
then this greatly maintains the theory i posted some time ago.
Publication available at:
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CA/journal/issues/v40n5/995001/995001.html
(alas now only for fee and i didn't save this text, maybe someone else still
has it or access to it).

Fire is what greatly enhances the availability of *tubers*.
And tubers are a much better available food resource as animals
(they are unevitable anyway, because of the fat/protein toxicity problem).

Your article is short but interesting.
The matching citation from it:

>Tubers on the Coals?
>        Circumstantial evidence also suggests that the Homo erectus species
>        was cooking its food. The H. erectus chewing musculature is reduced
>        compared to earlier hominids, while its molars are smaller and bear
>       less
>        protective enamel, all suggesting a less-tough diet.
>
>        A recent hypothesis suggests most cooking in this early time frame
>        involved not only meat but also African tubers, which may have been
>        gathered by women. Many tubers require more cooking than meat to
>        be edible, so the presence of fire would have greatly expanded food
>        availability.

I think, to see cooking as essential to developement of homo is a important
idea. The verb "cooking" is synonymous to "preparing food".
It makes food items edible which were unedible or digestable only in smaller
quantities and qualities.
This applies to legumes as well as meat and many plants.
And therefore broadened the available nutrition for the human animal very
much. A big edge for evolution.

Regards Amadeus

my old posting was
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind0006&L=paleofood&P=R14155