Epilogue: The Well-Informed Cook

My Epilogue: The Well-Informed Reader


One final project later, I can say that I have enjoyed reading Richard Wrangham's "Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human." Overall, I have my praises and my critiques.  Let's start with the later.


1. Wrangham frequently bring us major changes (in his own words: smaller guts, bigger brains, bigger bodies, and reduced hair; more running; more hunting; longer lives; calmer temperaments and a new emphasis on bonding between females and males) and justifies them through his "cooking-causes-all" perspective. Although his arguments are (mostly) well-supported and obviously thought-provoking, he only briefly acknowledges other opposing theories. Although this was a boon for me, as I could then could then explore these alternatives in my blogs (see posts such as The Trade Off: Little Jaws, Big Brains? and The Roots of Romance… or Pair Bonding at Least) Wrangham could better support his own arguments by effectively exploring and debunking others.


2. Case study gaps. for example, he notes the 99.3% of societies that have male hunting only. But what about the.7% of societies that do feature women hunters? Understanding the outlier is important too. In this instance and others, I believe Wrangham over generalizes information that inherently has exceptions and gray-areas. 


3. My biggest critique: Wrangham's attitude. I feel, as a reader, that in not considering the gray areas and alternate hypotheses, he presents his hypothesis as an academic panacea for the advent of humanity as we morphologically and socially know it. I believe he does not leave enough room for other ideas, and it is not realistic to assume that cooking and cooking alone caused changes that were influenced by a number of (or even completely different) factors. Therefore, I do not recommend a reader pruruse this book without investigating the wellspring of other hypothesis and literature out there. But I do recommend it.


Why?


Because through his use of diverse examples, past and present information on the human diet (he brings us all from Australopiths all the way up to the works of renown foodie Micheal Pollen) and his accessible, non-technical prose, Wrangham has written a good, thought-provoking book. "Catching Fire" entertains and educates the intellect (a rare combination) on a topic that we can all relate to. In summary, I say bon appetite to this evolutionary literature entree, but take it with a grain of salt.