First with apologies to Charles;  may I take  strong  issue
with some things recently written.
Thank you for your contribution;  without it this reply
would not be interesting.

>>How do you eat for high-energy? Definition of Paleolithic.


> Dianne:
>
> I hoped I'd draw someone on this "paleo" thing. The fact
is the Paleolithic
> simply describes a state of being, not a particular date
in the past.

OK  if not a date  How about and era or epoch?

Usually I could not find much about the California Indians
except that they were exterminated early on!

A few years ago I met  some Seri Indians in Mexico,  near
Kino Bay,   One woman I will never forget:  she was very
tall and very elegant in bearing and speech.  These are the
Indians who were so primitive that they were not inteested
in trading for a knofe!

One or more of my ancestors was Eastern American Indian,  (I
have the chisel shaped front teeth of Asian / American
Indians) and my maternal Grandfather  had a neat collection
of Indian artifacts.

>
> The essential difference between the paleo lithic and the
meso and neo lithic
> is the introduction of agriculture and pasturelism
(domesticated animals).
> The reason I describe "my" local Indians as paleolithic is
this is what they
> were.

>
> And this is the case with the California Indians, and this
is why they are
> such a treasure trove of information about the
"paleolithic"

TRY  Reading some  books written by Frances Parkman about
one hundred fifty years ago.

>But we do know what paleolithic native Californians ate in
great detail --
> all 600 different food items, and just as importantly, how
they processed it
> (and most of this stuff is still available - all you have
to do is go and get   it!).

Please provide the name of the writers and year of
publication.
>
> And since all this is presumably about genes -- in other
words, do we have
> paleolithic genes, so should we be eating in a paleolithic
manner, then the

Don't you think the Dentist  (Price) explained that good
food equals good health and conversely poor food
contributes to poor health  so it depends on where a tribe
lived and on what food was locally available?
>
> The Mojave Indians living in the Mojave Desert were over 6
foot tall, and
> they only had roots, insects and small game to live on.

I doubt it!    If I was a virile six footer,  I would have
caught sheep or deer or bear for dinner- even if I had to
climb a hill to find it.      (been there done that)

Please  let us know where to find chronicles of the
California Indians that you refer to!

The native
> Californians suffered from none of the autoimmune diseases
that plague modern
> man. I repeat, none -- no heart disease, no cancers, no
diabetes, no
> osteoporosis, no or little arthritis, no obesity, etc.etc.
And since they
> also did not have any viral diseases, since they lived in
small groups, their
> only cause of premature death was due to injury, and they
were pretty good at
> dealing with that as well.
>

They did not suffer the dirty water diseases very often.!!

Thank you for your contribution;  without it this reply
would not be interesting.

Lorenzo