ANT 252 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Human Tooth, Biological Anthropology, Lactase Persistence
Document Summary
6. 1 foodways: finding, making and eating food. Foodways: structured beliefs and behaviors surrounding the production, distribution, and consumption of food. Changes in food habits reflect a variety of interconnected issues and widespread challenges that involve too much or too little access to food, diet-related disease. Anthropologists bring a holistic perspective to the study of food and foodways. Focus on the complex interactions between human nutritional needs, ecology, cultural beliefs, industry, and political-economic processes. Evolutionary shift from frugivores to omnivores around 1. 8-2 million years ago. Around 400,000 yrs ago, the ability to use fire for cooking allowed us to break down tendons and toxins in meats. Human teeth, chewing muscles, and digestive organs got smaller. Greater access to high-quality protein supported the evolution of greater complexity in our brains. All mammalian babies produce an enzyme called lactase that allows them to digest lactose, a sugar found in their mother"s milk.
