curran@barnum.DEC (Karen Curran) (03/06/86)
I've been an observer in this newsgroup for several months now, and would like to thank everyone for the interesting discussions on "eating meat". I'm not a vegetarian but almost one. My reasons for cutting my meat consumption have not been ethical, (although I could never eat veal after I heard what they did to get it), they've been more out of concern for my health. My husband and I have been following the Pritikin diet. I haven't seen this mentioned although I've seen remarkable similarities in some of the postings, especially the one where they recommended a 5% fat intake, (you can't eat much meat if your going to adhere to this one). Anyway the reason I'm writing, is that last week I saw a show on public television, concerning the evolution of man from ape. I didn't get to see the whole show, but I will try to summarize what I did see. The theory started with chimps/apes living in trees. Somehow they developed a taste for meat. To get meat they would drive off the lions (or whatever) that had killed an animal. They would do this by banding together and using sticks as weapons. The interesting part was the effect that eating meat had on their lifestyle. It gave them more time to do other things than just gathering their food. Meat provided them with better nutrition at less of an expense. It went on to explain how they progressed to living more and more on the ground and this progressed to standing upright, to watch for predators. That was about all I saw. It seems that without eating meat we might have never become what we are today. But, it seems that we no longer need to eat meat, we now have ways of getting our food, that doesn't require an all day effort. I'd like to agree with Mr Cramer's friend, It's just a passing fad. Karen Curran
ray@vger.UUCP (Ray Swartz) (03/07/86)
In article <1538@decwrl.DEC.COM>, curran@barnum.DEC (Karen Curran) writes: > > I've been an observer in this newsgroup for several months > now, and would like to thank everyone for the interesting > discussions on "eating meat". > I'm not a vegetarian but almost one. >... > I'd like to agree with Mr Cramer's friend, It's just a passing fad. > One could make the same arguments about nuclear weapons concluding that they are simply a "passing fad." Well, that's all well and good but how are we to build a world that is beyond such "fads?" Frankly, I think people who admit to being "almost vegetarians" impress me as much as someone who is almost "against nuclear weapons": we shouldn't use such bombs most of the time and when we do its just the small ones. Make a commitment! The only part of the universe you can control is what you do! The world will be what its inhabitants are... On the other hand, maybe the Earth is just a "passing fad," too. Ray Swartz
evans@mhuxt.UUCP (crandall) (03/09/86)
OK, let's try my yearly primate evolution lecture again. Open: curtain
up on the Paleocene and Eocene. Scurrying little mammals seen. Examine
teeth of said critters. Find that teeth of early primates refect an
insectivorous diet more than any other (expect a bit of variety here such as
flowers, shoots, young leaves and sap). If insects make you cringe remember
how most folks go gaga over lobster and shrimp.
Oligocene: We're moving on to creatures which seem to hybridize apes and
monkeys (which was actually ancestor to the other has been up in the air since
Fayum fossils found). Probably something of a mixed diet here (omnivorous).
Fruits important (do you have a sweet tooth? most apes do) with proteins and
other nutrients largely supplied by insects, young shoots, young leaves,
flower pollen, etc. Your spatulate shape retained by your incisors reflects
the importance of frugivory (fruits).
Miocene: Incisors even more reflective of frugivory.
Pliocene: Let's add broad, grinding molars, flattening face, some form of
padding on the rear, and sexual signals carried on the chest. Bingo, we,ve
got the Theropithecus complex, named for a monkey which depends mostly on
grains (as we do; we,re largely gramnivorous omnivores). Hense, those
wonderful pasta cravings. Was meat eatten? Probably some (it is an easy
protein source).
Pliestocene. No reason to differ it from now except that Homo sapiens
neanderthalensis seems to have eatten more meat than we do, probably for the
same reasons that Eskimoes eat more than other peoples. Most "primitive"?
peoples eat less than 25% of their protein in meat form.
Bipedalism from hunting? Garbage ... the concept was recognized as
idiotic 30 years ago. Why bipedalism? Who knows, but that's what is fun
about it.
Sukie Crandall