Hunting and Eating Meat Made us Human
In the article I aim to explain why hunting was not only an essential part of human evolution, but the defining skill that actually made us the intelligent humans we are.
We know we evolved from the chimpanzee (ape) lineage. So at what point did we surpass our ape - mates, and how? Gaining the ability to hunt and therefore adapt to eating meat was crucial.
Scavenging
The first and most primal method we utilised to find better nutrition was scavenging. We were scavengers before hunters. A likely scenario is we may have found the remains of a large carcass such as a wildebeest hunted by a dangerous predatory animal such as lions or dogs. Perhaps by accident, perhaps out of curiosity, or maybe as a conscious strategy.
We can only assume that the first inclusions of meat in our diet were transformative to the health and effectiveness of our species. Otherwise, we would have not risked going near large game for the danger of being attacked by predators. If it were not worth it, we would have stuck to gathering fruits and rooted vegetation to get nutrients. Put simply, we would have stuck to being plant-eating chimpanzees and therefore halting our evolution as a species.
Our early primal instincts served us well. They were evidently far more acute than our modern day, addiction prone instincts. Without much distraction from sugars; as honey and fruits were scarce and seasonal, one can assume that the taste and satiating effect of eating animals kept us coming back for more and more. This desire is what we can assume led us to developing more and more advanced methods of acquiring meat, namely, hunting.
Early Techniques
The earliest methods of killing an animal to eat likely included wasteful, risky events such as driving a herd of animals at speed over the edge of a hill or cliff, killing several. These events would have produced human casualties also, no doubt. Again, despite the risks, we persevered in our quest for nutrition.
Early use of ‘tools’; stones, sticks, etc, would have proved useful for breaking apart animals, organs and bones to access nutrients. Somewhere in all this, likely very early on, we realised we could use tools to assist in hunting, also. Throwing blunt sticks and small stones was inevitably unsuccessful so, again, we developed. A sharp stick, or rock would have great effect if used as a spear. The later development of bows and arrows would further enhance effectiveness.
There is no question that the ability to use physical leverage and tools to produce massive force by throwing and striking is the most distinctive skill that sets us apart as a species.
Artwork
Cave paintings are an invaluable insight into stone age life. Of course, almost every drawing is of animals, often with small stick-figure humans in pursuit, hunting. Why? Because the hunting was vital. A kill was valuable, sacred. Equally, hunting was almost the only use of time. Hunt, sleep, hunt, sleep. Without writing or much advanced communication, painting animals on stone was their expression of what they spent their time doing, what they valued. A stone age ‘Instagram’, essentially.
Cooking and Eating Meats
The discovery of fire, although probably accidental, is a huge turning point in the story of our diets and evolution. Again, the ability to use a ‘tool’ or learned technique - fire - set us further apart from our earlier ancestors and of course other species.
Allow me to list a summary of the physical adaptations that we developed as elite hunters and our transition to a cooked meat diet prompted:
Our eyes point straight forward and we see in great detail, colour and depth. These eyes are made to predate; to hunt.
Meat, especially cooked, takes less chewing than plant fibres. Our jaw, teeth and surrounding muscles grew smaller, allowing more space for a larger brain and more developed muscles involved in verbal communication such as the tongue. We got smarter and better at communicating.
We adapted to digest cooked meats, organs and fat very easily and efficiently. Our digestive system got shorter, in particular the stomach and small intestine. Stomach acidity rose in order to break down proteins and fats. Our appendix and cecum also shrunk, with almost no requirement to slowly digest fibre. More room in the torso means more muscles. Muscles for producing force through our very special rotating shoulders (our secret weapon) thereby making us better hunters.
Fat became our energy source. The organs that help us digest and absorb fat (stomach, liver, gal bladder, pancreas, small intestine) came into their own. The efficiency of this system meant we no longer needed to spend all day grazing on huge volumes of fibres to get energy; we could eat a small portion of nutrient dense animal proteins and fats and thrive. More time to hunt, think, develop, evolve.
With better tools and better bodies, we could out think and out hunt animals. We shed the fur we once had, in order to shed heat through our now thin, watery sweat, and produced melanin to darken and protect the now exposed pink skin.
Humans didn’t invent hunting. Hunting invented us.
Bonus Myth-Busting
“Our teeth are not similar to other predatory animals therefore we are not designed to eat meat”
Yes, we have some teeth similar to those of herbivores - flat for grinding plants up, and we have some similar to carnivores - sharp for tearing. This is one of the reasons we are fairly good at being omnivores.
The reason we don’t have teeth identical to all the other carnivores and lions and scary beasts is the very reason we overtook them; the reason we are top of the food chain and the most lethal:
We can use tools. We learnt.
We don’t have to grab a deer by the neck with our jaw and tear it to bits with our sharp teeth, we use tools to hunt it, cook it, and then eat it. Our herbivore-esque molars are a useful leftover.
