Sometimes, some inconclusive inferences in the scientific community will be circulated among the public as truth. The assertion that "meat is of great significance in the history of human evolution" is an example. This paper makes an in-depth analysis of this and tells everyone that this is actually just a specious inference, and there is no rigorous scientific basis. Hou Yamei is a researcher at the Institute of vertebrate paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She once published an article on the cover of American Science magazine, refuting a long-standing hypothesis that Homo erectus in East Asia lacked wisdom and adaptability than Homo erectus in Africa, which caused an international sensation and prompted archaeological research to re-evaluate the origin of human civilization in Asia. In 2004, she was awarded the title of "First China Young Female Scientist Award" by the state. Hu Hong is a researcher at the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
165438+2009 10 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species, one of the most influential works in history. Darwin not only made outstanding contributions to natural science, but also greatly influenced the humanities with his love and wisdom. For two centuries, no scientist has had a greater influence on science, politics, religion, philosophy and art than Darwin. Darwin's love includes all animals. He said: "There is no fundamental difference in intelligence between humans and higher mammals ... There is a great difference in spirit between humans and higher mammals, but this difference is only in quantity, not in essence or class (1)". He clearly told us: "loving all living things is the noblest virtue of mankind (2)." Food is the most important thing for people. In the history of human evolution, diet is undoubtedly of unparalleled importance to human survival. Out of respect and love for animal life, Darwin himself was a vegetarian. However, many nutritionists disagree with Darwin's view on diet. They tried to find some facts from the evolution of life through prehistoric archaeology and provide evidence for their views on meat nutrition. For example, Dr. Carolyn M. Pound of the United States pointed out in her book Life and Fat that "the time to turn to meat-eating coincides with the rapid expansion of the cranial cavity of primitive human fossils. Many anthropologists believe that this relationship is causal, and eating meat directly leads to the improvement of intelligence, thus paving the way for evolution into modern people. Therefore, from prehistoric times to the present, meat has always been a valuable food for us humans. " So that the human body can obtain complete sources of protein, vitamins and other nutrients. Meat, in particular, can provide basic nutrients such as zinc, vitamin B 12, calcium, iron and vitamin A, which are difficult to ingest in vegetarian diet. "According to Dr. Carolyn M. Pound, vegetarianism will make people malnourished, and it will also prevent human evolution and reduce intelligence. This sensational statement will discourage anyone who intends to try to become a vegetarian, and a person who likes meat will be more convinced that vegetarians are masochists and that eating meat will help human evolution. However, if we do a more in-depth analysis, we can find that this view has no scientific basis. Let's do some detailed analysis. The evolution of life is the most important and complicated event on our planet. The scientific community already knows that it can give a general block diagram of biological evolution. However, we still need to be very cautious when drawing conclusions based on these limited facts. Popper, a philosopher of science, called this characteristic of scientific falsifiability the logic of scientific discovery in his masterpiece The Logic of Scientific Discovery. He said: "It is not verifiability, but falsifiability that should be used as the decomposition standard (referring to the demarcation standard between science and pseudoscience). In other words, I don't ask a scientific system to be selected once and for all in a positive sense; I require it to have such a logical form, which can be selected by experience in a negative sense: an empirical scientific system must be refuted by experience. "Because of this, different views often argue with each other in scientific research. To find out the truth, we can't just listen to one side of the story. We need dialectical analysis and in-depth exploration of various viewpoints in order to draw a more correct conclusion. By analyzing the relationship between food and evolution, this paper tries to put forward some dietary suggestions for human beings to further evolve to a higher level of life. Good scientific research is inseparable from the spiritual guidance of human beings. When studying human evolution, it is easy to draw absurd conclusions without moral guidance. In order to draw a more objective and correct conclusion. Here are some viewpoints related to this, and do some in-depth analysis to see what the scientific conclusion about the relationship between meat and evolution is. First of all, we briefly introduce some recognized facts about human evolution. According to anthropological research, human evolution is mainly divided into the following stages (the anthropological data in the following are from Anthropology written by Yaya Roginski and Marg Le Yi: In the era of human predecessor (Australopithecus), the important genetic feature that Australopithecus obtained from its arboreal ancestors was the ability to use the hands of objects and the corresponding parts of the cerebral cortex. In terms of living habits, another very important feature that Australopithecus obtained from its ancestors is its highly developed gregarious nature. Australopithecus should first have those abilities as manual animals and social animals. They have the ability to find and use tools, but they don't have the ability to make tools consciously. Because of its age, it is difficult to infer the detailed food structure of Australopithecus from the facts of field archaeological excavation. We can only roughly infer that Australopithecus may be an omnivore. However, according to the works of George Salle, an American, who studies the life and behavior of gorillas under natural conditions, and Jane Goodall, a British scientist, who studies chimpanzees on the east coast of Lake Tanganyika, we can know some detailed information about the diet of gorillas to make up for the lack of archaeology. According to the observations of these modern zoologists, 179 about half of the mountain gorillas' nests are on the ground, while chimpanzees' nests are usually built in trees. Gorillas are peaceful animals, while chimpanzees are often aggressive; Gorillas feed entirely on plants (it eats about 29 kinds of food), while chimpanzees often eat meat. Its prey are colobus monkeys, baboons, red-tailed monkeys and blue-tailed monkeys. What is the relationship between gorillas, chimpanzees and Australopithecus?
Homo erectus, that is, in ancient times, its most important feature is that it can consciously make tools. One of the most important tools of ancient people was the hand axe. Archaeologists believe that the main purpose of the hand axe in the relic era is to play the most suitable function of its shape and weight, which can be chopped or roughly chopped; These functions have two purposes: (1) making primitive sticks and sharp wooden tools, such as wooden spears; (2) It is used to decompose the bodies of killed animals, and knock open the animal skulls to take marrow. So Homo erectus was also an omnivore. Homo erectus' brain is much larger than that of orangutans (from 435-650 cubic centimeters to 800- 1225 cubic centimeters). In the book Life and Fat, Dr. Carolyn M. Pound of the United States adopted the view that "the time to turn to meat-eating coincides with the time when the fossilized cranium of hominids increased rapidly", which may be based on the function of Homo erectus in making tools, hands and axes.
Neanderthals, or ancient times. For ancient culture, we can make a judgment based on a large number of tools unearthed in most sites. Most tools are characterized by finer processing, more regular processing and more diverse shapes. Simple bone products appeared. According to the bonfires, charred bones and ash piles widely distributed in most sites, it can be inferred that Neanderthals had the ability to make artificial fires. So from the time of Neanderthals, humans began to cook food, and Neanderthals were also omnivores. Compared with Homo erectus, the brain of Neanderthals not only has larger brain capacity, but also has great changes in structure, such as the increase of absolute height and relative height of intracranial model (mainly in parietal bone). Some people infer the importance of cooked food to brain evolution.
Needless to say, modern or new era. According to the function of hand axes and stone tools made by ancient humans (or Homo erectus), the above archaeologists concluded that ancient humans ate meat, which may be reasonable. But if we further infer that eating meat is a necessary condition for human evolution, there is a problem. Is nutrition comprehensive? For the answer to this question, you can look at "Can you get enough nutrition without eating meat?" Articles ". As can be seen from the article, vegetarianism is not only not worse than meat, but also better than meat. If you add the conditioning of Chinese herbal medicines, the nutrition of vegetarian food far exceeds that of meat. For a detailed introduction to this aspect, you can see the professional book "Vegetarian Dietary Guide".
In a word, the evolution of life is the greatest and most complicated event in our world. There are many factors to promote evolution, and there are many theories to explain the evolution mechanism. "Carnivorous hypothesis theory is one of them. However, this theory, because carnivores are more fierce and aggressive than vegetarians, is easy to draw the conclusion that human evolution is increasingly dependent on weapons used for killing to obtain meat. A prehistoric weapon competition has promoted the development of the brain, so few people agree with this theory. "