Posted on 08/12/2008 4:23:21 PM PDT by Soliton
"For a long time, humans were pretty dumb, doing little but make 'the same very boring stone tools for almost 2 million years,' says Philipp Khaitovich of the Partner Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai. Then, 150,000 years ago, our big brains suddenly got smart. We started innovating. We tried different materials. We started creating art and maybe even religion. To understand what caused the cognitive spurt, researchers examined chemical brain processes known to have changed in the past 200,000 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at science.slashdot.org ...
Good luck with the wings sauce.
|
|
|||
Gods |
Thanks KoRn. I'm amaized. Read up, all, I'll be cuisine you about the contents of the story. |
||
|
· Mirabilis · Texas AM Anthropology News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · · History or Science & Nature Podcasts · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
The Neandertal EnigmaFrayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]
by James Shreeve
There's always a bright side.
The smell of perking coffee and frying bacon would have done the trick for the cognition, at least in the morning.
This is how & why human cognition began its dramatic leap forward:
Everyone loves ribs because they are primal, sensual eating. No forks, no linen, just meat on a stick, sauce on your face. “Don’t play with your food” doesn’t apply when you’re gnawing on ribs. Nothing is more fun to eat, and when they are cooked properly, there is damned little that tastes better. Their blend of flavors is a narcotic elixir that can addict you on first bite. You become focused on eating, obsessed with tugging and scraping the bones clean, moaning and shaking your head all the while.
Great barbecue sauce
No doubt the first ribs were shared by cavemen soon after the first forest fire. Since then, cooking with fire has always meant a gathering the clan outdoors, and there is no more intimate gathering than hanging around the fire with the sweet smell of smoke and meat in the air, with a beer in hand. To this day, nothing says “party” like ribs. The scent can make your nose smile and your mouth cry. Barbecue is pure porknography.
Ribs are easy to cook once you know how, yet they are the holy grail of backyard chefs from coast to coast. This website is for all the trash-talkers around the world who aspire to make the best ribs on the block, and then brag about them. It’s not hard. Get plenty of napkins, strap on a bib (or better still, an apron), and dig in! And if you don’t get messy, you’re not doing it right!
I don’t know about the coffee, but once you’ve seen the natives collecting roasted lizards, goanna, fried kangaroo and koala after a bushfire, there’s no mystery about how and where cooking was ‘invented’ -
And fire sacrifice was nothing but following example...if the ‘gods’ want their offering charred, that’s what we’ll send them. Hey, no primitive man in his right mind would wake up one morning and say to himself, I think I’ll get some wood, make a fire and burn my mammoth/deer/horse to a crisp before I eat it...
He got the idea from scavenging after the fire passed through.
:’) Exactly.
With the invention of beer it was inevitable that cooking would be invented. Why else to get beaned with a frying pan for staggering back to the cave after having a few.
I thought this thread was about the theory of gravytation. :-)
I thought this thread was about the theory of gravytation. :-)
So, the species really got rolling when we figured out meat tastes better cooked in garlic and onions, washed down with an amusing claret? Works for me.
Why did we start cooking? Was it to make the odor more powerful for our poor noses?
Did it have anything to do with the fact that when I smell barbecue down the street, I start feeling neighborly?
Cooking makes things more tender for old timers to chew, it sterilizes, and it carmalizes sugars to make things taste good. Cooked food is good for you.
All well and good, but I'm trying to imagine a cavewoman convincing a caveman with those arguments. :)
Depends if she's a hot cavewoman.
"Eat it or NO gagung gagung for you!"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.