We've got a lot of it to do here. First up, I will try to complete at least one more installment of my History Of Your Teeth series. I'll introduce you to my new dinosaur friend, living out his now cruelty-free days at Animal Acres, and use that as a launching point into a new series about the evolution of modern food animals, tentatively titled "Paleontology (Not) On Your Plate."
But first, a word about my goals with this blog. Recently, there seems to have been a wave of visitors convinced that I am trying to build an evolutionary case for Man The Vegan. Of course, anyone who reads regularly -- and thank you both ;-) -- knows that's not the case, but it does raise the opportunity for some clarification.
PaleoVeganology does not seek to argue that veganism is H. sapiens' "natural" diet, nor does it accept the proposition that the so-called "paleo" diet is, either. This blog is rooted in skepticism, meaning that I doubt there is any such thing as a "natural" human diet. Evolution didn't simply design the world to suit our intestines, and many completely natural things are more dangerous to us than any synthetic food could ever be (after all, synthetic foods can't evolve defenses). Paleontology can conclusively establish the fact hominids ate meat, at times a lot of it. But that doesn't really tell us something we didn't already know, and it's hardly enough to make grand claims or establish umbrella hypotheses about.
The goal of this blog is to inform the vegan/animal rights movement with a paleontological perspective, and help us all understand the geo-biotic context that makes us neighbors, not rulers, of other species. Along the way, I'm sure, I will continue to encounter or be challenged by ghouls* of various varieties, but at this point, I am not primarily writing for them.
*Ghouls are beings who eat the flesh of corpses. Has a much nicer ring to it than "carnist," dontcha think?
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.
This comment is cross-posted on my own blog with some additional details.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Geologizer, for a great blog. About two-thirds of the way through a long post I recently authored, under the article subheading "Fallback Food of Last Resort," I introduced my quick take on the argument that a plant-based diet is most definitely the natural diet of Homo sapiens.
I am looking for a worthy "opponent" to help me refine (or discard) my fallback food of last resort (FFLR) hypothesis in a leisurely and friendly cross-blog debate.
My ideal opponent is an insightful, independent, cutting-edge thinker in a field like paleoveganology who is favorably disposed toward vegan ethics but scientifically skeptical about vegan claims such as the FFLR. My ideal opponent (which is really too strong a word; open source peer review is much closer) will not be influenced one way or the other by my activism in the fields of energy descent, climate change, monetary reform, and degrowth, but will keep the discussion squarely focused on the scientific evidence for and against FFLR.
In addition to the FFLR article sub-section and my post on carbon isotope analysis of australopiths, I have read - but much too quickly - perhaps fifty articles and two hundred abstracts relating to this subject. I did all of this research in the spring of 2010, and wrote up a number of notes, the gist of which is that the expensive tissue hypothesis is extremely unlikely to support a meat-intensive diet as the driver of human brain evolution, but is entirely consistent with a carbohydrate-intensive diet. I have not been able to write up my FFLR hypothesis because I am working simultaneously across too many other more pressing research and advocacy fronts to maintain it as an independent line of critical inquiry. However, I think I could tackle it efficiently, effectively, and enjoyably through dialogue with a competent and intellectually gracious devil's advocate.
If this proposal interests you, please feel free to respond with a post on your own blog addressing however many holes in FFLR you would like to start with, and we can take it from there as our schedules allow.
Thanks again for a great blog, and regardless of what you decide about my proposal, I wish you all the best as you continue with your writing on PaleoVeganology.
Wouldnt it make more sense to study without trying to push an agenda?
ReplyDeleteCan't tell if the comment of Anonymous is directed at me or at the Geologizer. Either way, doesn't it make more sense to focus on the hypothesis, and not on the passion of the researcher?
ReplyDeleteJonathan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the proposal. I'm interested, and I have read your blog post for context. I'll be pre-occupied for at least the next week with legal concerns surrounding my father's recent death, but I will take up your offer as soon as I can after that.
Meantime, if you haven't already, check out my previous posts related to the expensive tissue hypothesis:
http://paleovegan.blogspot.com/2010/08/afarensis-may-have-used-stone-tools-so.html
http://paleovegan.blogspot.com/2010/08/rip-eth.html
Happy New Year. :)
Thank you, Geologizer. I'll be sure to read up on both articles. My condolences on the loss of your father. You wrote an exceptional eulogy for him, which I read this morning. I happened across a Pale Blue Dot film clip by Carl Sagan later in the day, while following a different line of inquiry, and was so struck by the coincidence I decided to include the video at the end of my most recent post, with a brief note of condolence and link to your eulogy there, as well. I look forward to your observations but very much understand and encourage you to take as much time as you need before responding.
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Jonathan