| Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human | |
|---|---|
September 2009 Profile books edition |
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| Author(s) | Richard Wrangham |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Sociocultural evolution Anthropology |
| Publisher | Profile books |
| Publication date | September 2009 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 320 |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-1-84668-285-8 |
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human (2009)[1] is a book by British primatologist Richard Wrangham, published by Profile Books in England, and Basic Books in the USA. It argues the hypothesis that cooking food was an essential behavior in the evolution of human beings. It was shortlisted for the 2010 Samuel Johnson Prize.
Contents |
Humans are the only species that cook their food and Wrangham argues Homo erectus emerged about two million years years ago as a result of this unique trait. Cooking had profound evolutionary effect because it increased food efficiency which allowed human ancestors to spend less time foraging, chewing, and digesting. H. erectus developed via a smaller, more efficient digestive tract which freed up energy to enable larger brain growth. Wrangham also argues that cooking and control of fire generally affected species development by providing warmth and helping to fend off predators which helped human ancestors adapt to a ground-based lifestyle. Wrangham points out that humans are highly evolved for eating cooked food and cannot maintain reproductive fitness with raw food.[2]
Critics of the cooking hypothesis question whether archaeological evidence supports the view that cooking fires began long enough ago to confirm Wrangham's findings.[3] The traditional explanation is that human ancestors scavenged carcasses for high-quality food that preceded the evolutionary shift to smaller guts and larger brains.[4]
Eighteenth-century writers noted already that "people cooked their meat, rather than eating it raw like animals". Oliver Goldsmith considered that "of all other animals we spend the least time in eating; this is one of the great distinctions between us and the brute creation". Nakedness was bestial, for clothes, like cooking, were a distinctively human attribute.[5] In 1999 Wrangham published the first version of the hypothesis in Current Anthropology. A short outline of the hypothesis was presented by John Allman (2000)[6] presumably based upon Wrangham (1999).