MEAT EATING AND THE ORIGINS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

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The full text of this book is available online at

http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/6549.html (

http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/books/stanford/). It is extremely well

written and very well presented. It will ruffle a few feathers in the coop

for sure.

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PAGE*<http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/> The

Hunting Apes:

Meat Eating and the Origins of Human Behavior

 

*Craig B. Stanford*

 

Paper | 2001 | *$22.95* / £14.95 | ISBN: 0-691-08888-8

262 pp. | 5 x 7 | 3 tables 3 line illus. 10 halftones

 

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What makes humans unique? What makes us the most successful animal species

inhabiting the Earth today? Most scientists agree that the key to our

success is the unusually large size of our brains. Our large brains gave us

our exceptional thinking capacity and led to humans' other distinctive

characteristics, including advanced communication, tool use, and walking on

two legs. Or was it the other way around? Did the challenges faced by early

humans push the species toward communication, tool use, and walking and, in

doing so, drive the evolutionary engine toward a large brain? In this

provocative new book, Craig Stanford presents an intriguing alternative to

this puzzling question--an alternative grounded in recent, groundbreaking

scientific observation. According to Stanford, what made humans unique was

meat. Or, rather, the desire for meat, the eating of meat, the hunting of

meat, and the sharing of meat.

 

Based on new insights into the behavior of chimps and other great apes, our

now extinct human ancestors, and existing hunting and gathering societies,

Stanford shows the remarkable role that meat has played in these societies.

Perhaps because it provides a highly concentrated source of

protein--essential for the development and health of the brain--meat is

craved by many primates, including humans. This craving has given meat

genuine power--the power to cause males to form hunting parties and organize

entire cultures around hunting. And it has given men the power to manipulate

and control women in these cultures. Stanford argues that the skills

developed and required for successful hunting and *especially* the sharing

of meat spurred the explosion of human brain size over the past 200,000

years. He then turns his attention to the ways meat is shared within primate

and human societies to argue that this all-important activity has had

profound effects on basic social structures that are still felt today.

 

Sure to spark a lively debate, Stanford's argument takes the form of an

extended essay on human origins. The book's small format, helpful

illustrations, and moderate tone will appeal to all readers interested in

those fundamental questions about what makes us human.

 

*Reviews:*

 

" A provocative, eminently digestible book. . . . Stanford writes clearly and

often deftly, and with admirable concision. . . . [A] marvelous exploration

of evolutionary hypotheses . . . fascinating stuff. " --Michael Pakenham, *The

Baltimore Sun*

 

" Anyone who would like to review all of the arguments on human origins

should read *The Hunting Apes*. . . . This book will go a long way in

explaining why physical anthropologists and their colleagues fight so

much. " --Deborah L. Manzolillo, *Times Literary Supplement *

 

" A brave academic endeavour and a fine piece of popular science writing. . .

.. Stanford's book summarises a huge body of evidence in a pleasing, coherent

and non-polemic way. You'll feel that you're talking with a learned . . .

dinner companion, rather than enduring a lecture or hectoring sermon from an

academic pulpit. " --Adrian Barnett, *New Scientist*

 

" Stanford's ideas, while controversial, are amply documented by behavioral

studies of nonhuman primates, anthropological studies of a number of human

societies and archeological studies of early and pre-humans. " --*Publishers

Weekly*

 

" [A] provocative new look at what made people so smart. . . . This is a

fascinating book, written for the nonspecialist. " --*Booklist*

 

" An unabashed celebration of the carnivorous tendencies of early humankind.

Virtually every aspect of Stanford's thesis about the importance of meat

acquisition and sharing among early humans is steeped in controversy. " --*Kirkus

Reviews*

 

" [An] admirable little book. . . . [stanford's] meticulously constructed

study is both readable and thought-provoking and gives fascinating insights

into the behaviour of our species. " --*The Tablet*

 

*More reviews* <http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/quotes/q6549.html>

 

*Table of Contents:*

 

Preface and Acknowledgments ix

Chapter 1 The Indelible Stamp 3

Chapter 2 Man the Hunter and Other Stories 15

Chapter 3 Ape Nature 52

Chapter 4 The View from the Pliocene 103

Chapter 5 The Hunting People 136

Chapter 6 The Ghost in the Gorilla 163

Chapter 7 Meat's Patriarchy 199

Notes 219

References 229

Index 247

 

*Subject Areas:*

 

- *Biological

Sciences*<http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/catalogs/subjects/bio.html>

-

*Anthropology*<http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/catalogs/subjects/anth.html>