Читать книгу Introducing Anthropology - Laura Pountney - Страница 45

There is evidence that the human brain became larger as a result of increased nutrition. One interesting argument put forward by Richard Wrangham (2009) is that cooking food – behaviour unique to humans – played a large role in our evolution. Around 800,000 years ago, early humans gathered around campfires that they made and controlled. There may have been lots of different reasons for this, including socialization, comfort and warmth, to share food and information, and to find safety from predators. Wrangham argued that the habit of eating cooked rather than raw meat permitted the digestive tract to shrink and the human brain to grow, since cooked meat is easier to digest and gives out more calories.