Re: Humans as scavengers

"Paul Crowley" <slkwuoiutiuytciuyik@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Floyd L. Davidson" <floyd@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:871wlvhbun.fld@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"How come you cannot provide ONE single example of human
population that DOES ANY scavenging of rotten meat ?"

As was quoted in each of your responses, including the article
to which I am replying. As we have noted, the definition of
"rotten" is open to debate, but I don't think Crowley intended
that to be the sticking point.

It is the sticking point. Some (or most) of the
predators in Africa scavenge on carcases
eating meat that would be inedible to humans
(no matter how 'culturally adapted' they could
become). Crocodiles and vultures are probably
the most extreme examples, with hyenas and
dogs not too far behind them.

All of those animals eat fresh meat.

The question is why humans are not closer
to (say) dogs in this respect, IF they evolved
to be scavengers.

The difference between canines and humans is that one is very
specialized (almost 100% carnivore) and the other is not
(omnivore).

Canines do not chew anything, and digest food mostly with
intestinal bacterial action. A canine basically has to eat the
same kind of protein today that it did yesterday, or it cannot
digest what it eats. Hence if you change brands of dog food,
your dog may not want to eat the new stuff, and will very likely
suffer diarrhea when it does eat it. It may take a couple weeks
to develop the right intestinal bacteria before the dog can
digest the new food.

Canines, as with some other animals, may have less difficulty
digesting some types of "meat" (oily food, such as the brains or
cold water fish) unless it is at least partially processed by
bacteria. They can digest almost anything easier of it is first
processed; which is no different than humans.

Humans chew foods and use acid and enzymes for digestion more
than bacteria. Humans can digest a variety that changes with
each meal.

Just as with canines though, humans often have to process some
foods in order to digest them. Bacterial actions is suitable,
except we can't tolerate many of the toxins released by some
bacteria (a problem that canines don't have). Hence instead of
commonly processing with bacteria, humans more often eat food
that is processed by fermentation, by enzyme action, or by heat.

Canines of course do not have the intelligence to intentionally
process meat in as many ways as humans do, but they can also
digest those foods easier than strictly raw food.

In fact, in this respect, they have scarcely
moved from the chimp level. In other words,
there has been NO selection in the direction
of a capacity to consume "older meat".

Is that of any particular significance?

The 'scavenging hypothesis' is defeated.

It doesn't appear to me that a "scavenging hypothesis" requires
the ability to eat meat that has been decomposing due to
bacterial action.

The fact that humans are able to eat a much greater variety of
food types than are carnivores is what restricts humans from
eating bacterial processed food. That is assisted by human
intelligence, which allows food to be processed by other than
bacterial action.

If evolution has occurred, it would have been away from
bacterial processing since the time that humans began to use
fire as a tool, at least. How long has that been?

And even before that humans might have had the intelligence to
store meat in ways that would cause processing for easier
digestion. Various animals do that, though most of them in ways
that encourages bacterial action rather than not. But it is
entirely possible that humans at a very early stage would have
been storing food in ways that encouraged fermenting, drying, or
enzyme action rather than bacterial action. That too would have
been a starting point for evolution away from the ability to
tolerate bacterial toxins.

--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) floyd@xxxxxxxxxx
.

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