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Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
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Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human Hardcover - 2009

by Richard Wrangham


From the publisher

Ever since Darwin and The Descent of Man, the existence of humans has been attributed to our intelligence and adaptability. But in Catching Fire, renowned primatologist Richard Wrangham presents a startling alternative: our evolutionary success is the result of cooking. In a groundbreaking theory of our origins, Wrangham shows that the shift from raw to cooked foods was the key factor in human evolution. When our ancestors adapted to using fire, humanity began. Once our hominid ancestors began cooking their food, the human digestive tract shrank and the brain grew. Time once spent chewing tough raw food could be sued instead to hunt and to tend camp. Cooking became the basis for pair bonding and marriage, created the household, and even led to a sexual division of labor. Tracing the contemporary implications of our ancestors' diets, Catching Fire sheds new light on how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual species we are today. A pathbreaking new theory of human evolution, Catching Fire will provoke controversy and fascinate anyone interested in our ancient origins--or in our modern eating habits.

Details

  • Title Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
  • Author Richard Wrangham
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition First edition
  • Pages 309
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Basic Books (AZ), New York
  • Date 2009-05
  • ISBN 9780465013623 / 0465013627
  • Weight 0.9 lbs (0.41 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.3 in (21.08 x 14.48 x 3.30 cm)
  • Library of Congress subjects Prehistoric peoples - Food, Roasting (Cookery) - History
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2009001742
  • Dewey Decimal Code 394.12

About the author

Richard Wrangham is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University and Curator of Primate Behavioral Biology at the Peabody Museum. He is the co-author of Demonic Males and co-editor of Chimpanzee Cultures. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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