I am reading The Hunting Hypothesis by Robert Ardrey and enjoying it very much. There are many interesting ideas, like the idea that human ancestors were preadapted to hunting before we actually began hunting. At some point, Eastern Africa began to thin out, with tropical jungle more scattered and increasingly being replaced by prairie and open spaces. The species that was our ancestors had to cross such spaces to get to patches of jungle, where the fruit we relied on for most of our food could be obtained. But this was dangerous, because we would be vulnerable to predatory animals crossing such open spaces. An number of adaptation arose and were reinforced: walking upright, which freed up the hands, and carrying weapons to protect ourselves from predators. So, the adaptations that allowed humans to hunt were initially used for self-defense. Chimpanzees can also walk upright and will instinctively hold a weapon in defense if encountering predatory carnivores, such as leopards and tigers. So Ardrey speculates that the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees is human-like in those ways. Our common ancestor was adapted to defending itself and walking upright for short distances, and had a taste for meat. But one line became ground-dwelling hunters, relying on meat in the diet, the other line continued to live primarily in the trees.
Topic: what are you reading? (Read 14320 times)