Carnies and omnis are always blabbing about human teeth and guts, claiming they are unique or specific adaptations to meat-eating. Of course, this is a misunderstanding of evolution, since not all traits are adaptations to their current use.
Our teeth are simply variations on the basic mammalian tooth plan, and our guts are variations of the basic primate gut morphology. In other words, they're just hand-me-downs; the fact that cavemen had them doesn't mean cavemen got them specifically for the uses they put them to.
More succinctly: cavemen may have found new uses for old things, but that doesn't mean the old things were "meant" for the new uses.
I'm working on a longer post right now that goes into detail about classification and taxonomy as it relates to vegan issues, including a fable about the checkered history of the word "omnivore." Many anti-vegans throw this word around in a most pseudo-scientific way. Hopefully, this will set some of them straight.
About Me
- The Humane Hominid
- I am a politically-progressive, ethically-herbivorous anthropoid pursuing a paleontology education in the Los Angeles Basin. I am largely nocturnal, have rarely been photographed, and cannot thrive in captivity.
Great! Paleoveganism is essential to Animal Rights.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to the next post. The naturalistic fallacy is invoked almost as often as 'plant sentience' to defend omnivorism.
However, many vegans also get it wrong, when trying to prove that we are herbivorously designed.