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Posted to alt.animals.ethics.vegetarian,alt.food.vegan
Martin Willett
 
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Default Would you like to be eaten?

S. Maizlich wrote:

>
> It is UNDISPUTED by evolutionary biologists that meat played an
> indispensable role in human evolution. Meat's role was both direct and
> indirect. The direct role was in providing the massive amount of
> protein needed for brain development. The indirect role is as an
> organizing principle of human activity.


The organizational role is absolutely critical. There is no reason for a
vegetarian species to develop sophisticated communication because they
don't have anything sophisticated to communicate. Fruits and tubers
don't require teamwork or sophisticated tools to subdue, but our
ancestors brought down mammoths, give them some respect.

Belittling the role of meat and hunting in evolution is as much
pseudo-science as creationism is. The collection of snippets of research
here and there that seem to offer some suggestion of support for a pre
decided stance is the antithesis of the scientific method.

Human evolution required meat eating and hunting. That is not to say
that man was ever exclusively carnivorous, the only largely carnivorous
hominid was /Homo neanderthalensis/, who was almost as carnivorous as a
polar bear. But as far as anybody can tell all our direct ancestors were
omnivorous but more carnivorous than modern chimpanzees and that change
in diet was significant for the development of larger brains both in
allowing expansion and requiring it.


--
Martin Willett


http://mwillett.org