The curiously long absence of cooking in evolutionary thought

Learn Behav. 2016 Jun;44(2):116-7. doi: 10.3758/s13420-016-0223-4.

Abstract

Beran et al. (2015, p. 1) characterized the idea that "cooked food was integral in human evolution" as a "long-held hypothesis" favored by Darwin and Engels. In fact, however, although Darwin and Engels considered the use of cooked food to be an important influence on behavior and society, neither of them suggested that its effects were evolutionary in the sense of affecting biology. Explicit discussion of the possible evolutionary impacts of cooking did not begin until the twentieth century.

Keywords: Evolutionary thought; Human adaptation.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biological Evolution*
  • Cognition*
  • Cooking*
  • Humans