Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A 136 (2003) 3546
Review: Cooking as a biological trait
Richard Wrangham*, NancyLou Conklin-Brittain Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Peabody Museum, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA Received 28 June 2002; received in revised form 16 January 2003; accepted 17 January 2003
Current evidence, however, does not support the notion of cooking as being too recent to have had evolutionary effects. The typical duration of a speciation event is considered to be 15 00025 000 years, and mammalian species can evolve in as little as 5000 years (Gould, 2002). Human biology
is also known to be capable of rapid adaptation (e.g. to malaria, Durham, 1991) and specifically in response to a change in diet. Thus populations
with a high frequency of genes responsible for lactose absorption (LA) in adults are those with a history of dairying. Populations are estimated to
have adapted biologically to milk-drinking in 5000 years or less (i.e. LA genes increased from 5 to 70% of population, Aoki, 1991; Cavalli-Sforza et al., 1994). These points suggest that for cooking to have been practiced too recently to have had evolutionary effects, it must have been adopted
less than 5000 years ago.
Article continued...
Other evidence points to the control of fire by hominids even earlier, such as 400 000600 000years ago in Vertesszolos, Hungary (Kretzoi and Dobosi, 1990), more than 1 million years ago in Swartkrans, South Africa (Brain, 1993), and 1.6 million years ago at Koobi Fora, Kenya (Rowlett, 2000) (see Straus, 1989). The oldest date suggested for the adoption of cooking is 1.9 million years ago (Wrangham et al., 1999), a time that marks the origin of the modern human body form (Homoergaster), a rise in dietary quality, and a shift
towards a human pattern of life-history (Leonard and Robertson, 1997; Aiello and Key, 2002; OConnell et al., 2002). The hypothesis of such an early date for the adoption of cooking is inferred from biological evidence, and awaits archeological scrutiny (Brace, 2002). Thus the precise date when cooking was adopted is unknown. Nevertheless, cooking is clearly ancient compared to the time required for biological adaptation to occur.
Bookmarks