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Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
| Author(s): | Richard Wrangham |
| Date: | 2009 |
| Pages: | 320 p |
| Size: | 0.3 Mb |
| Format: | PDF |
| Language: | English |
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Description
Ever since Darwin and
The Descent of Man, the existence of humans has been attributed to our
intelligence and adaptability. But in Catching Fire, renowned primatologist
Richard Wrangham presents a startling alternative: our evolutionary success is
the result of cooking. In a groundbreaking theory of our origins, Wrangham
shows that the shift from raw to cooked foods was the key factor in human
evolution. When our ancestors adapted to using fire, humanity began. Once our
hominid ancestors began cooking their food, the human digestive tract shrank
and the brain grew. Time once spent chewing tough raw food could be sued
instead to hunt and to tend camp. Cooking became the basis for pair bonding and
marriage, created the household, and even led to a sexual division of labor.
Tracing the contemporary implications of our ancestors’ diets, Catching Fire
sheds new light on how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual
species we are today. A pathbreaking new theory of human evolution, Catching
Fire will provoke controversy and fascinate anyone interested in our ancient
origins—or in our modern eating habits.
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