April 21, 2006
Humans Are Cat Food?
"The theory of Man the Hunter as our archetypal ancestor isn't supported by archaeological evidence. . . Is Man the Hunter a cultural construction of the West? . . . Our species began as just one of many that had to be careful, to depend on other group members, and to communicate danger. We were quite simply small beasts within a large and complex ecosystem."
via Arts & Letters Daily
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No shit. Before people had technology they used to be eaten. More people are aware of this than the article wants to admit. Next time from chronicle.com: whales are not fish.
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I think it was more about the hunter-carnivore aspect, but they did spend some time on the evidence of being food.
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The world isn't divided into predator species and prey species. In other words, homo sapiens (and it's relatively close predecessors) was almost certainly omnivorous, but we were both the hunter, and the hunted. Hunter of critters and possibly medium-sized animals, and hunted by bigger, toothier creatures.
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So maybe it was about challenging the perception that the earliest humans hunted much at all.
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Monkeyfilter: Before people had technology they used to be eaten.
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i certainly got a lot more before we became a multi-computer household i've said to much
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Yes, gives credence to the statement, "Your breath smells like cat food." Na, Pantsie, this one from the article is waaaayy mo'better: MonkeyFilter: Greedily devouring livid writhing flesh. How apropo!
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"Thus an urge to cooperate can clearly be seen as a functional tool rather than a Pollyannaish nicety" hell yeah.
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Either a critter evolves to have many dining choices/be as versatile a feeder as possible, or it specializes. In the latter case the critter becomes more vulnerable to extinction -- at least this is how it seems to work. Conclusions: 1. Once the bamboo it eats is gone, the panda is done for. 2. Man must learn to eat plastic.
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Go cats!
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See, this explains why kittens are so fond of lurking beneath couches and chairs and taking a swipe at humanoid ankles...they don't know that they aren't going to grow to sabretooth size and are practicing for mashing humans like spuds. When Mother and Father cat tell this to kittens, I tell you, it's worse than little kids and the truth about Santa. Oh, the wailing and the growling that ensues! Generally the entire feline family then gets stinkin' drunk on Cat Booze; this rite of passage is known as "The Great Disappointment".
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why kittens are so fond of lurking beneath couches and chairs and taking a swipe at humanoid ankles. for a nice story along these lines, see neil gaiman's sandman short: a dream of a thousand cats, one of my favourite sandman stories.
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something found as i looked for that thousand cats link: Cat The fat cat on the mat may seem to dream of nice mice that suffice for him, or cream; but he free, maybe, walks in thought unbowed, proud, where loud roared and fought his kin, lean and slim, or deep in den in the East feasted on beasts and tender men. The giant lion with iron claw in paw, and huge ruthless tooth in gory jaw; the pard dark-starred, fleet upon feet, that oft soft from aloft leaps upon his meat where woods loom in gloom -- far now they be, fierce and free, and tamed is he; but fat cat on the mat kept as a pet he does not forget. -- J. R. R. Tolkien
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I always wondered what my cat would think if she ever came across a living tuna. As for people, you have to be pretty deluded to think that we don't need each other on a very basic level. We're really not terribly hard to catch, after all.
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Sincerest form of flattery, Bees! 's OK Roryk, I'm finding it hard not to double post poems--especially favorites that I really really want to share and can't remember if I did or not.