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How Cooking Made Us Human
Basic Books
June 2009
On Sale: May 25, 2009
320 pages
ISBN: 0465013627
EAN: 9780465013623
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
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.
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