Domestication and the Human Diet

Background: Beginning at the end of the last Ice Age—the Pleistocene—human groups across the world began cultivating wild plants and animals for
food. In the past 10,000 years this process resulted in the domestication of wild species to the point that nearly all of the foods that we eat today are
radically different in their genetic composition and physical appearance from their nondomesticated ancestors. Given that humans (H. sapiens
sapiens) have been around for at least 200,000 years, and agriculture has been practiced for only about 6000 years or so, some people assert that
humans are not evolved to consume many of the foods that are dietary staples in modern human societies. Specifically, they argue that the so-called
Paleo Diet is “based on the eating patterns of our most ancient hunter gatherer ancestors — the early humans of the paleolithic (stone age) period,
who roamed the earth millions of years ago…[that] all hunter gatherers had the same dietary approach — they consumed only those foods provided
and available by nature…[and that] human genes have not changed enough over the last few thousand years to adapt to our new agriculture‐based
diet” (http:// www.paleodietfoodlist.net/paleo-diet/).
Instructions: In this activity you will evaluate the scientific basis for these claims about human diet, and how archaeology can be used to inform on
modern ideas. First, read through a recent discussion of this fad diet by National Geographic: https:// www.nationalgeographic.com/people-andculture/food/the-

plate/2014/04/22/ prehistoric-dining-the-real-paleo-diet/
After reading this discussion, select one foodstuff that proponents of the Paleo Diet assert is “allowed” by the diet (and thus is something humans are
“evolved” to eat), and select a foodstuff that is “not allowed” by the diet (and thus is something humans are NOT “evolved” to eat). A list of allowed
and not allowed foods is provided below.
Research the history of domestication and human use of these two foodstuffs to identify the following:

1. Where and by whom (i.e., what culture or society) were these first domesticated?
2. When were these first domesticated? 1
3. What is the wild (nondomesticated) species from which the modern cultivar derives?
4. What are the ways in which the modern cultivars differ from the nondomesticated versions?
5. Identify evidence from archaeology as well as from one other scientific discipline (e.g., botany, genetics, biology, etc.) to support your findings

Sample Solution