Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human

by Richard Wrangham
ISBN-10:
0465020410
ISBN-13:
9780465020416
Pub. Date:
09/14/2010
Publisher:
Basic Books
ISBN-10:
0465020410
ISBN-13:
9780465020416
Pub. Date:
09/14/2010
Publisher:
Basic Books
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human

by Richard Wrangham
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Overview

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.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780465020416
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication date: 09/14/2010
Edition description: First Trade Paper Edition
Pages: 320
Product dimensions: 6.96(w) x 11.58(h) x 0.86(d)
Age Range: 13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Richard Wrangham is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University and Curator of Primate Behavioral Biology at the Peabody Museum. He is the co-author of Demonic Malesand co-editor of Chimpanzee Cultures. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Cooking Hypothesis 1

1 Quest for Raw-Foodists 15

2 The Cook's Body 37

3 The Energy Theory of Cooking 55

4 When Cooking Began 83

5 Brain Foods 105

6 How Cooking Frees Men 129

7 The Married Cook 147

8 The Cook's Journey 179

Epilogue: The Well-Informed Cook 195

Acknowledgments 209

Notes 213

Bibliography 257

Index 289

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