FOOD
AND
EVOLUTION
Toward a Theory of Hllman Food Habits

AND
EVOLUTION
Toward
a Theory
of
Human
Food
Habits
EDITED
BY
MAR'VIN
HARRIS
AND
ERIC
B.
ROSS
[iijiiJ
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
~
Philadelphia
Temple University Press, Philadelphia 19122
Copyright
© 1987 by Temple University.
All
rights reserved

II.
Ross, Eric
B.
[DNLM:
1.
Food Habits. GT 2860 F686]
GN407. F65 1986 306 86-5773
ISBN 0-87722-435-8 (alk. paper)
Although now substantially revised, the initial drafts of the papers
in
this volume were
presented at the 94th Symposium of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological
Research at Cedar
Key,
Florida, October 23-30, 1983. On behalf of
all
the participants,
the editors wish to thank the foundation and its staff for their support and advice.
We
were especially aware of our debts to Lita Osrnundsen, the foundation's director of
research.
The editors are also deeply grateful to the staff of Temple University Press, es-
pecially to Jane Cullen, Jennifer French, and Jane Barry for their heroic production and
copyediting feats.

Introduction
Part
I.
Theoretical Overview
1.

WILLIAM]. HAMILTON
III
5.
Fava
Bean
Consumption: A
Case
for
the
Co-
Evolution of
Genes
and Culture
SOL()MON
H.
KATZ
Part
III.
Nutritional and Biopsychological Constraints
6.
Problems and Pitfalls in
the
Assessment
of Human
Nutritional
Status
P.
L.
PELLETT
7.

as
Sources of Fats, Proteins, and
Other
Nutrients
LESLIE SUE LIEBERMAN
Part
IV.
Pre-State
Foodways:
Past
and
Present
10.
The
Significance of Long-Term Changes
in
Human
261
Diet and Food Economy MARK
N.
COHEN
11.
Life in
the
"Garden of Eden":
Causes
and
285
Consequences of
the

HARRIS
15.
Ecological and Structural Influences on
the
387
Proportions of Wild Foods in the Diets of Two
Machiguenga Communities ALLEN JOHNSON
and MICHAEL BAKSH
16.
Limiting Factors in Amazonian Ecology
407
KENNETH
R.
GOOD
Part
V.
The
Political Economy and the Political Ecology of
Contemporary Foodways
17.
Loaves and Fishes in Bangladesh
427
SHIRLEY LINDENBAUM
18.
Animal Protein Consumption and
the
Sacred Cow
445
Complex
in

23.
The
Evolution of Human Subsistence
ANl'~A
ROOSEVELT
24. Biocultural Aspects of Food Choice
GEORGE ARMELAGOS
Mterword
About the Contributors
Glossary
Name Index
Subject Index
Contents
455
481
517
541
565
579
595
601
607
613
625
IX

THIS BOOK RESULTS FROM
AN
INTER_DISCIPLINARY EFFORT TO AD-
vance our understanding of why human beings

the salient
levels of analysis and perspective are
represented
in
the chapters that
follow,
nor do we presume that this work encompasses an adequate representation of
those that are. But we hope at least to have helped to broaden the general
scope of inquiry beyond the horizons of any single viewpoint, while still main-
taining what we emphatically regard as a commitment to a nomothetic
approach.
The disciplinary perspectives of the contlibutors to this volume range over
primatology (Hamilton, Milton), nutrition (Pellett, Lieberman), biological an-
thropology (Armelagos, Katz), archaeology (Yesner, Cohen, Roosevelt,
D.
Harris), psychology (Rozin), and agricultural economics (Nair). Although cultur-
al
anthropologists predominate numerically, they too offer a great diversity of
insight and information based on their varying professional interests and,
in
particular, their wide spectrum of regional specializations: Bangladesh (Linden-
baum), Amazonia (Johnson and Baksh, Good, Ross), Paraguay (Hawkes), Ca-
nadian sub-arctic (Winterhalder), Southeast Asia and Africa (Franke), Mexico
(Pelto), Costa Rica (Edelman), Peru (Orlove), and Europe (Ross).
In attempting to integrate the diversity of disciplinary viewpoints that
these
scholars represent, the editors chose an evolutionary framework as the only
suitably broad
yet
coherent and unifying one available to us. In its biological

is, at least, little
doubt that, throughout most of the Pleistocene, the evolution of biological rep-
ertoires and the evolution of behavioral repertoires were closely
intertwined-
and that diet is one domain where the intersection was particularly noteworthy.
With the appearance of
Homo
sapiens,
if
not earlier, however, a pro-
gressively
greater
independence-or
lag-between
biological and cultural se-
lection reduced the rate and incidence of gene-culture co-evolution. Radically
different modes of production, accompanied by massive changes
in
food habits,
emerged
in
the later phases of human prehistory and throughout subsequent
history without any discernible evidence of related changes
in
gene frequen-
cies. Increasingly, behavior associated with the procurement, distribution, and
consumption of food came, like the
rest
of human behavior, to be propagated
through learning

linked to such genetic variations.
The
transition from upper paleo-
lithic to neolithic modes of production, for example, generally involved a shift
from narrow reliance on animal foods to broad-spectrum regimens
in
which the
consumption of domesticated tubers and grains gained ascendancy over meat
and other animal foods (pastoral modes of production, of course, followed a
divergent trajectory).
The
next great general evolutionary changes
in
foodways
may be associated with the rise ofarchaic agro-managerial
states
whose dense,
socially stratified populations
were
dependent on one
or
two staple grains and
which maintained distinctive consumption patterns for elites and commoners.
The further evolution of imperial
state
systems with massive potentials for
trade and great capacities for modifying their habitats through public works
doubtless increased such class
or
caste distinctions

genetic repertoires. Part
IV
deals with food patterns associated with pre-state
sociocultural
systems
as revealed through both archaeological and ethno-
graphic researches. And Part V concerns itself with foodways
in
contemporary
state-level societies, with emphasis upon the consequences of underdevelop-
ment and participation
in
the capitalist world system.
Needless to
say,
it
is
impossible for any single volume to provide a thor-
oughly comprehensive treatment of so conlplex a subject as the evolution of
human food habits
or
to reach any definitive theoretical outcome. What we
have hoped to
do,
however,
is
to provide a guide and a framework for much
needed future investigation, and an incentive for others to join
in
that neces-

preferences
and
avoidances.
They
range
over
a
variety
of
pre-state
and
state-level
foodways,
highlighting
food
t'ractices
that
have
generally
been
re-
garded
as
beyond
the
pale
of
nomothetic
approaches
or

etic
operations.
Emic
food-
ways
data
result
from
eliciting
operations
in
which
the
participants'
sense
of
what
people
eat
or
ought
to
eat,
and
the
symbolic
signijicance
of
food
preferences

by
the
observers
(e.g.,
calories,
proteins,
costs
and
benefits).
Beyond
the
separation
of
emics
from
etics,
materialist
approaches
to
foodways
start
with
the
assumption thatpuzzling
dietary
habits
are
the
outcome
ofdetermin-

and
symbolic
systems,
Philosophies,
aesthetic
standards)
are
in
place,
they
of
course
exert
an influence
over
all
aspects
of
sociallzfe, including
foodways.
Religious
food
taboos,
for
example,
have
a distinctive
role
to
play

is
incapable
of
weighing
one
causal
component
against another
or
of
stating
the
conditions
under
which
now
infrastructure,
now
superstructure,
achieves
dominance.
The
restraints
imposed
by
infrastructure
upon
structure and superstructure remain
dominant
in

that
have
favorable
etic
cost-benefit
balances
will tend
to
be
selected
for.
Participants'
emic
valuations of
foodways
arise
from
infrastruc-
ture.
Major
changes
in infrastructure
cause
major
changes
in
foodways
and their
emic
valuations.

the
cultural and
biopsychological
selection
pressures for and against particular
food-
ways
often
differs
markedly
according
to
age-
and
sex-related
status
roles
and
social
strata.
Hierarchies
based
on
sex,
class,
ethnicity,
and
other
distinctions
are

ecology.
As
in
contemporary
state
societies
and
their
neocolonial
dependencies,
what
people
eat
is
often
what
they
are
allowed
to
eat
or
obliged
to
eat
as
a
consequence
of their subordination
to

several respects. In a general
way,
it
compels us to confront and challenge the possibilities and limits of cultural ex-
planation (see Ross
1980), while, more specifically, it enables us to begin to
seek (and hopefully to formulate) generalizable and predictive principles
in
a
domain of culture where we are routinely led to believe that such principles are
unlikely to
apply.
For it
is
precisely
in
the matter of dietary customs that the
concept of culture has been most consistently invoked to suggest that, at the
heart of what
seems
the most material and practical of human affairs, there lies
an ineluctable core ofarbitrary, fortuitous,
or
irrational thought. The seemingly
inexhaustible variety and range of human dietary patterns thus has been taken
to
represent
quintessential evidence of the inexorable power of the human
mind, through the device of culture, to transcend the constraints of material
and historical circumstances.

not predict-
able, ways. But, ultimately, it must take into account a more practical end: we
do
not study human dietary customs merely because they are interesting, but
because at the end of the day they help to define the quality of
life
of real
people. Variation
in
what people
eat
reflects substantive variation
in
status and
power and characterizes societies that are internally stratified into rich and
poor, sick and healthy, developed and underdeveloped, overfed and under-
nourished.
An
anthropology that, by one methodological device or another,
reduces such features of any social
system
to arbitrary reflections of the human
mind only entraps itself
in
a self-indulgent relativism that precludes
all
like-
lihood of raising a coherent critical voice.
It is a necessary requisite
of

And
few
if
any hunting populations are
ever
as isolated as those who study
them may like to believe.
An
additional problem is perhaps more distinctively theoretical. One of the
enduring issues involved
in
dietary
custom-and
one of decided relevance to
the general question of dietary
variation-is
that of taboos (see Harris 1977,
8
1.
Overview of Trends
in
Dietary Variation
1979; Ross 1978a).
Yet
optimal foraging theory has yielded little insight into
such
matters-indeed,
may be considered to have confounded
them-and
the

in-
crease
in
sedentarism, since such resources are relatively immobile; increased
sedentarism
will
usually mean
greater
development of horticulture (Carneiro
1968), while a more sedentary, horticultural lifestyle
will
differentially diminish
access to the spectrum of available game animals. Thus, small ones, which
reproduce rapidly
or
are commensal
in
nature, tend to be found near settle-
ments, regardless of continued hunting, while larger animals such as tapir and
deer require treks into
ever
deeper forest. If aquatic resources are lucrative
enough, such animals
will
rarely be hunted and may eventually be regarded as
inedible; indeed,
if
aquatic resources are unusually
plentiful-for
example, es-

is
provided by the i\che of
eastern
Paraguay, who still
spend a considerable portion of their year as hunters. At such times there is no
horticultural activity, and fishing
is
relatively insignificant "because the streams
that
flow
through [their] territory are poorly supplied with fish" (Clastres
1972: 155). Thus,
in
contrast to the riverine Kalapalo, the Ache
seem
to ex-
clude virtually no potential animal food from their diet
(Hill
and Hawkes 1983).
9
I.
Theoretical Overview
In between these two
extremes
lies a continuum of degrees of exclusion, de-
termined by various mixes of hunting and fishing productivity, which
in
turn
depend on such variables as settlement size, type of horticulture, exposure to
trade, and warfare.

In the case of tapir, they
seem
to have made so little contribution to the Ache
diet-indeed,
none at
all
during the research
period-that
they were not even
included
in
the model's rankings of what Ache preferences ought to have been.
Initially this may
seem
vaguely to express the remarkably ambiguous role that
the tapir occupies as the largest, yet one of the most elusive, game animals.
But the optimal foraging model, at least
in
this instance, contains a notable
irony, for
Hill
and Hawkes tell us that the tapir would have been the highest-
ranked animal had it made any contribution to the diet
at
all.
This suggests, as
we have already seen, that the model is much less interested
in
the dynamics of
hunting tapir

anything about why the tapir
is
fre-
quently excluded from the diet among many hunter-horticulturalists. The rea-
son for this is simple: as we have previously suggested, the tapir's sensitivity
to human predation
renders
it progressively more scarce the more sedentary a
community of hunters becomes. But by the admission of its own advocates,
optimal foraging theory disregards the question of an animal's abundance or
scarcity (Winterhalder
1981:93-94). On these terms, the tapir, once admitted
10
1.
Overview of Trends
in
Dietary Variation
to the model, would never
fall
out of the
diet-a
conclusion clearly contradicted
by evidence.
It can only be said that this may not lllatter too much when considering
exclusively hunting peoples, who, being mobile, can minimize the scarcity of
such animals by following them without being compelled to confine themselves
to a convenient distance from a stable home-base. But, certainly, once there is
any measure of sedentarism to consider, the contradictions of the model begin
to diminish its credibility. Indeed, paradoxically, what began as a putatively
materialist model ends by emulating the lnore abstract, symbolic models it

also a constitu-
ent of the economy, it not only induces a
greater
degree of sedentarism, but
also provides more secure sources of calories. As this occurred, for example,
during the Neolithic, the role of energy as a limiting factor
in
human activity
gave way to other factors such as fats and proteins (Gross 1975; Reidhead
1980). The difference may readily be
seen
in
a comparison of the Ache and the
Achuara Jivaro of Peru: among the former, hunting supplies an estimated 80
percent of dietary calories (Hawkes,
Hill,
and O'Connell 1982:385), whereas
among the horticultural Achuara
74
percent are derived from manioc and plan-
tains (Ross 1976; 1978a:4). This
in
tum
has profound implications for dietary
strategies, for it means that where Ache hunting patterns must reconcile ener-
gy inputs and outputs fairly efficiently, Achuara hunting is effectively subsidized
by horticulture and can be undertaken
at
an energetic loss
if

rich
in
fat-whether
it
is
beaver among the Amerindians of the Canadian boreal
forest (Berkes and Farkas 1978: 161; Winterhalder 1981) or tapir and coleop-
tera larvae among the Ache (Clastres 1972).
As
a result, it has perhaps not
been uncommon for foraging populations,
in
a diverse assortment
of
biomes, to
have a "surprisingly" high protein
intake-in
order to amass sufficient calories.
Thus, to take them once more as an example, the Ache average 150 grams
of
protein
per
capita
per
day during their hunting treks (Hawkes,
Hill,
and O'Con-
nell 1982:385).
On
the other hand, high game harvest may not necessarily

the availability of quality protein, previously provided by hunting, and an
in-
crease
in
the consumption of starchy plant foods. It may well have been during
this period that sedentary groups first evidenced the meat craving that is re-
ported among so many hunting-horticultural peoples today. It has been sug-
gested that such a
craving-a
preference for meat as the exemplary
food-
embodies a form
of
cultural motivation, since hunting
is
often a problematical
and unrewarding task. But there may also be a physiological component. Judith
and Richard Wurtman (1983) have described, for example, the quite different
effects on brain chemistry of diets high
in
protein or carbohydrates. Whereas a
diet with a high protein-to-carbohydrate ratio leads to a lowering of brain
serotonin levels and elevates the desire for carbohydrates, one lower
in
protein
and higher
in
carbohydrates-the
general patternfor most horticultural popula-
12

in
comparatively
recent
times,
in
advanced industrial nations, this has meant that although consumption
of calories has remained high, the desire for increased protein intake has been
able to be met. This, on the
other
hand, as we
will
see
in
a later section, has
been achieved only through far-reaching social and economic developments
that have involved an unprecedented level of integration of diverse local cultur-
al
systems, and has meant an intensification of economic, social, and political
stratification,
locally,
nationally, and on a global scale.
Hunting, Taboos, and the Market Economy
We
have observed that among foraging populations, the level of intake of pro-
tein
may,
in
fact, be an artifact of the quest for calories. By the same token, the
contribution of various animals to the diet may be
in

time" (1982: 160). (For example, although the Yanoama Indians of the Venezue-
lan rain forest have been widely regarded as a relatively unacculturated popula-
tion, their staple crop is the
plantain-a
I~uropean
introduction.) Thus, the
13
1.
Theoretical Overview
Ache have been presented
in
various essays as
if
they personified an authentic
paleolithic lifestyle (e. g., Hawkes,
Hill,
and O'Connell 1982). But,
in
fact, it
is
practically impossible
(if,
obviously, theoretically practicable) to comprehend
the dynamics of Ache foraging without taking into account that the group under
study spends around half the year
in
a Catholic mission, where,
in
between
hunting treks, its members are "under the supervision

ever
expanding market economy,
a process that has influenced their customary behaviors-including
diet-in
ways that we are only slowly beginning to appreciate (Leacock 1981:39-62;
Tanner 1979). One serious way has been through pressure to exploit resources
for the production of non-food commodities. Thus,
in
Canada, though beaver
was already exploited before the arrival of Europeans, increasing involvement
by
Indians such as the Cree
in
the fur trade seems to have increased the role of
the beaver as a
food
source (Feit 1982:380; Tanner 1979:60-61; Winterhalder
1981:
87).
This, however, had at times the additional effect of nearly decimating
the species (Feit 1982:390; Tanner 1979:61), thus affecting diet
in
the opposite
direction.
In Amazonia today, there are few Amerindians who
do
not participate to
some degree
in
such commercial activities as selling or bartering skins and

Such outside influence has worked
in
a diversity of ways, as the Achuara
case suggests. The Achuara today tend to regard such animals as tapir, deer,
14