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Monday, December 23, 2019

GENERAL ANTHROPOLOGY - "Cooking Up Bigger Brains" by Rachael Gorman

Topic: According to Wrangham, what was the importance of cooking food? How does it change the nutritional value of food? How did cooking potentially influence the evolution of the brain? Are there any challenges to this idea?



ANT 101 - 001
12/06/2019
Cooking Up Bigger Brains
The article "Cooking Up Bigger Brains" written by Rachael Gorman. Harvard University biology anthropologist Richard Wrangham claims that our ancestors do not always eat raw food. Wrangham researched the fruits that monkeys eat and the same fruits that people can survive. However, his conclusion is that people cannot have enough calories and body fitness by eating only fruits. Wrangham claimed that it was impossible to live like this for a long time. That is why Wrangham believed that people should eat cooked food. Because Wrangham says that high calorie and energy needs can only be achieved with cooked food. In addition, cooked food leads to bigger bodies and brains.

Wrangham began research in this direction. First, Wrangham began to investigate our ancestors in the past. Wrangham understood that Homo Erectus's tooth structures and brain structures had a brain and smaller teeth that were 50% larger than the homo habilis, the previous humanoid species. Wrangham did not find a clue that researches of past people eat raw meat. Wrangham concluded that our ancestors' body was more suitable for cooked meat. Because cooked meat provides very high calories. Raw meat does not provide this high calorie. When Wrangham examined the species of wood found in the remains of a homo erectus dating back 1.6 million years, he found evidence of burned wood.
Wrangham claims that even if the scientific world has not been able to accept this, homo erectus are fed with cooked meat as a result of examination of the body structures and organs. Perhaps it is a homo erectus that has eaten the burnt parts of a flaming tree as a result of a lightning strike. However, according to Wrangham, he believes that homo erectus feeds on cooked food. But, when this is proved in the scientific world, it will show that humanity has cooked and eaten even a long time ago.

                                                    Written by Erdogan Akbiyik

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