From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Apr 30 2003 - 20:37:00 MDT
Greg Jordan wrote:
> How do you know what [paleos] did not eat? I hope you aren't
> thinking they didn't have the "technology"...
Actually that is exactly what I think. Archeologists mark the advent of
agricultural technology at about 10-12,000 B.C., at the beginning of the
Neolithic. Prior to that time we did not cultivate grains in any large
number. We might have smashed a few wild grains on primitive millstones in
the short period prior to the Neolithic (during the Mesolithic), but grains
did not become a significant part of the diet until the Neolithic, which is
just yesterday on the evolutionary time-scale. Approximately 99.99 percent
of the human genome was formed prior to the Neolithic.
>> Archeological evidence of human remains show that paleo
>> peoples were healthier than their neolithic progeny. This was
>> discussed previously in the thread about diet and evolution.
>
> What evidence are you looking at? I must have missed all the
> references in the previous part of the thread.
This general diet thread has wandered near and far under multiple subject
headings. Fortunately my email client allows me to search on words from the
text of sent email, so I can reproduce a previous post of mine that I sent
to a related thread just a couple of weeks ago...
-----
> Can you provide a reference for prehistoric humans being taller than
> 20th century humans? Everything I've read on the topic has said the
> opposite.
It may be true that we 20th and 21st century humans are near to the height
of our paleolithic ancestors, thanks to advances in medicine and nutrition,
but the evidence is that farmers in general were much shorter than their
prehistoric ancestors at least until very recently. I'll need to find the
proper sources in the bibliography of Dr. Cordain's on book on paleodiets to
give you an academic reference, but here is what he says on page 42:
"The archeological record clearly shows that whenever and wherever ancient
humans sowed seeds, (and replaced the old animal-dominated diets), part of
the harvest included health problems. One physical ramification of the new
diet was immediately obvious: Early farmers were markedly shorter than their
ancestors. In Turkey and Greece, for example, pre-agricultural men stood 5
feet 9 inches tall and women 5 feet 5 inches. By 3000 B.C., the average man
had shrunk to 5 feet 3 inches and the average woman to 5 feet. But getting
shorter -- not in itself a health problem -- was the least of the changes in
these early farmers. Studies of their bone and teeth reveal that these
people were basically a mess. They had more infectious diseases, more
childhood mortality, and shorter life-spans in general. They also had more
osteoporosis, rickets, and other bone mineral disorders thanks to their
cereal based diets... Instead of the well-formed, strong teeth their
ancestors had, there were now cavities. Their jaws, which were formerly
square and roomy, were suddenly too small for their teeth, which overlapped
each other."
I've seen reference by another academic to studies of mummies unearthed from
ancient agricultural Egypt. Ancient Egyptians were also a mess.
The point is this: if it is true that we are healthier today than we were in
pre-agricultural times, then it is true despite the modern diet -- not
because of it.
-gts
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