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THE
EVOLUTION OF COOKING:
A
TALK WITH RICHARD WRANGHAM [2.28.01]
One
of the great thrusts of behavioral biology for the last three or
four decades has been that if you change the conditions that an
animal is in, then you change the kind of behavior that is elicited.
What the genetic control of behavior means is not that instincts
inevitably pop out regardless of circumstances; instead, it is that
we are created with a series of emotions that are appropriate for
a range of circumstances. The particular set of emotions that pop
out will vary within species, but they will also vary with context,
and once you know them better, then you can arrange the context...
It's much better to anticipate these things, recognize the problem,
and design in advance to protect.
Introduction
According
to Harvard biological anthropologist Richard Wrangham, almost
two million years ago humans emerged from a stock of pre-human
apes. Remarkably, our species is still evolving today, faster
than ever. "Why we evolved then, and why we are still changing,
are problems that shape our souls," he says.
Wrangham believes that humanity was launched by an ape learning
to cook. In a burst of evolution around two million years ago,
our species developed the family relations that make us such a
peculiar kind of animal. Cooking made us women, men and lovers.
"We behave like our two closest relatives," Wrangham
says. "Chimpanzees and bonobos, because in spite of first
appearances, we face somewhat similar kinds of problems to each
of those species. Cooking makes our behavior partly chimpanzee-like
because it intensifies a chimpanzee-like division of labor. Self-domestication,
on the other hand, makes us bonobo-like by selecting for a youthful
psyche. In both cases human behavior echoes the biology of our
cousins, though never exactly copying it."
One of Wrangham's central ideas is that we should cherish the
parallels between humans and other great apes, because they help
us to understand our own behavior. "For all our self consciousness,
we humans continue to follow biological rules. Life is easier
if we understand those rules. Recognition of the deep contradictions
in humanity binds us to our past, and also lights our future."
Other themes to his thinking: "We still have much to learn;
We should not be afraid of biology; Dichotomous thinking (e.g.
biology vs. culture; women vs. men) is almost always unhelpful
"Evolutionary anthropology has excessively neglected females."
— JB
RICHARD
WRANGHAM is a professor of biology and anthropology at Harvard
University who studies chimpanzees, and their behavior, in Uganda.
His main interest is in the question of human evolution from
a behavioral perspective. He is the author, with Dale Peterson,
of Demonic Males: Apes, and the Origins Of Human Violence.
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