Dean Pistilli wrote:
> I have to say, I haven't met too many culture's (except the abnormal
western/SAD culture) that does not eat raw meat.

> Japanese eat a tonne of raw sashimi each year. Middle easterners, starting
from ages ago, still eat many raw beef and lamb dishes such as kafte etc.
they mix the raw meat with some herbs and maybe some onion/garlic, but its
pure raw.
> Aboriginals still eat raw insects here, as well as animals such as kangaroo
with little or no cooking.

All true.  I eat a ton of sashimi myself.  And raw oysters.  I've tried steak
tartar.

But doesn't it seem that humans sicken and die of bacterial problems at a
much higher rate than other animals?  The neighborhood dogs lap up the water
in my bird bath all the time.  I don't think I'd be around for long if I did
that regularly.  Other animals seem to deal with bacterial and viral
infections much better than humans, and cooking is an excellent way to
sterilize things.

In any case, the first physiologically modern humans almost certainly had use
of fire for cooking--that's the archeological evidence.  It's hard to say how
much of their food was actually cooked.

     - Sheryl