Rotten meat may have been a staple of Stone Age diets
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Rotten meat may have been a staple of Stone Age diets
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Re: Rotten meat may have been a staple of Stone Age diets
#2I don't see how that's surprising, at least if you subscribe to the Endurance Running Hypothesis (and I do). Any prey humans used to hunt using what we now know as persistence hunting would have been large game. Especially in the hot, tropic climates early humans seemed to have thrived in, such meat would have started to spoil, even if hunted fresh, before any such hunter would have had the time to bring it back to the family group, let alone consume it. Meats in general have a very short shelf life and if we look to the various independently developed preservation methods in human groups around the world, many of them seem to be centered around a controlled decomposition by "favourable" organisms (like the maggots in the seal story).
There's also the simple observation that no doubt many of us have already made: animals all around us seem to have no issues with partially decomposed meat. Dogs don't seem to mind it, nor do cats, nor do other primates like chimpanzees. It's obvious that at least in our very recent evolutionary history we had far higher tolerance to spoilage.
Re: Rotten meat may have been a staple of Stone Age diets
#3I enjoy the work of Israeli anthropologist Miki Ben-Dor on this subject:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=miki+ben+dor
He's very much in agreement, saying that the human pattern was to hunt large game and then bring it home to eat over weeks, evolving a highly acidic stomach as a result to deal with the bacterial load of rotten meat. That pattern was interrupted by the growing scarcity of megafauna, perhaps caused by human hunters.
"Archaeological evidence does not overlook the fact that stone-age humans also consumed plants," adds Dr. Ben-Dor. "But according to the findings of this study plants only became a major component of the human diet toward the end of the era."
Re: Rotten meat may have been a staple of Stone Age diets
#4My gut refuses to believe it, but my brain understands that this is probably a lot like cheese -- blue cheese in particular. If you've only had fresh milk, letting it curdle and mold before eating it would probably be unthinkable. Same for fresh cabbage vs. kimchi or sauerkraut.
Re: Rotten meat may have been a staple of Stone Age diets
#5I don't see how that's surprising, at least if you subscribe to the Endurance Running Hypothesis (and I do). Any prey humans used to hunt using what we now know as persistence hunting would have been large game. Especially in the hot, tropic climates early humans seemed to have thrived in, such meat would have started to spoil, even if hunted fresh, before any such hunter would have had the time to bring it back to t…
> It's obvious that at most in our very recent evolutionary history we had far higher tolerance to spoilage.
I wonder what effect that’s had on a humans immune system. I’d imagine eating spoiled meat containing bacteria, etc was giving their immune system a run for its money until a tolerance was built.
Re: Rotten meat may have been a staple of Stone Age diets
#6I don't see how that's surprising, at least if you subscribe to the Endurance Running Hypothesis (and I do). Any prey humans used to hunt using what we now know as persistence hunting would have been large game. Especially in the hot, tropic climates early humans seemed to have thrived in, such meat would have started to spoil, even if hunted fresh, before any such hunter would have had the time to bring it back to t…
> It's obvious that at most in our very recent evolutionary history we had far higher tolerance to spoilage. I wonder what effect that’s had on a humans immune system. I’d imagine eating spoiled meat containing bacteria, etc was giving their immune system a run for its money until a tolerance was built.
It might have been a good thing?
Re: Rotten meat may have been a staple of Stone Age diets
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's obvious that at most in our very recent evolutionary history we had far higher tolerance to spoilage. I wonder what effect that’s had on a humans immune system. I’d imagine eating spoiled meat containing bacteria, etc was giving their immune system a run for its money until a tolerance was built.
It might have been a good thing?
Just look up the Hadza tribe's gut microbiome.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36238714/ https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4654
That's probably as close as you are going to get to truly paleo diets... not paleo-bros that eat only bacon, butter and meats.
Re: Rotten meat may have been a staple of Stone Age diets
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's obvious that at most in our very recent evolutionary history we had far higher tolerance to spoilage. I wonder what effect that’s had on a humans immune system. I’d imagine eating spoiled meat containing bacteria, etc was giving their immune system a run for its money until a tolerance was built.
It might have been a good thing?
I see how easy it would be for me at least to assume they had better immune systems from eating the spoiled meat. If true our modern immune systems are most likely way less effective than theirs at that time.
Re: Rotten meat may have been a staple of Stone Age diets
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's obvious that at most in our very recent evolutionary history we had far higher tolerance to spoilage. I wonder what effect that’s had on a humans immune system. I’d imagine eating spoiled meat containing bacteria, etc was giving their immune system a run for its money until a tolerance was built.
It might have been a good thing?
There does seem to be this notion that being "too hygienic" is a negative thing because it doesn't train your immune system.
That's only kind of true. Exposing a healthy person to small amounts of weakened virus tends to build immunity. Exposing the healthy person to large amounts of the virus overwhelms the immune system and may not even lead to a strong viral immunity.
If I had to guess, eating rotten meat is something that indigenous peoples have adapted to over time (and some individuals died along the way to that adaptation) and they are resistant to the specific things in rotten meat that make modern day humans sick. I think it would be wrong to suggest the rotten meat eaters are somehow better off for doing this, or that they have stronger immune systems in general.
Immune systems aren't like a muscle that you can repeatedly train to get stronger and stronger and stronger ad infinitum.
Immunity also comes at a cost. This isn't talked about often. But it's not "Free" for your body to learn and maintain immunity to specific infections.
Re: Rotten meat may have been a staple of Stone Age diets
#10I don't see how that's surprising, at least if you subscribe to the Endurance Running Hypothesis (and I do). Any prey humans used to hunt using what we now know as persistence hunting would have been large game. Especially in the hot, tropic climates early humans seemed to have thrived in, such meat would have started to spoil, even if hunted fresh, before any such hunter would have had the time to bring it back to t…
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