.
Register for our Voices Dispatches email to receive a comprehensive summary of the top opinions from the week.
Subscribe to our complimentary Voices weekly newsletter.
Researchers have stated that hunter-gatherers residing in South America approximately 9,000 years ago primarily subsisted on a diet consisting of plants. This contradicts the commonly accepted notion that these groups primarily consumed meat.
Researchers from the University of Wyoming in the United States examined the remains of 24 people from two burial locations in the Andes Mountains of Peru.
The team stated that analysis of chemical evidence from the bones showed that plant foods made up a significant portion (approximately 80%) of the Andes hunter-gatherers’ diets, while meat was a less important part.
The idea that early humans primarily consumed meat has resulted in methods like the paleo diet, which aims to imitate the dietary patterns of our ancestors who lived in the Paleolithic period, spanning from 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago.
Currently, the contemporary version of the paleo diet focuses on consuming meat, fish, vegetables, nuts and seeds, while avoiding grains, legumes, and dairy products.
There is a belief that the human body is more suited to a Paleolithic diet, but there are also critics who argue that this diet may be overly restrictive and exclude important sources of nutrition.
According to Randy Haas, a faculty member at the University of Wyoming, it is commonly believed that early human societies primarily relied on hunting as their main economic activity. This belief has contributed to the popularity of high-protein diets like the paleo diet.
According to our analysis, the diets consisted of 80% plant-based foods and 20% meat.
.
It is probable that future isotopic studies in other regions will uncover similar errors made by archaeologists, including ourselves, in the Andes due to long-standing archaeological biases.
One of the primary explanations for the belief that hunter-gatherers were meat-eaters is that artifacts related to hunting have a better chance of being preserved compared to those related to gathering and processing plants.
According to Professor Haas, stone tools and animal bones have a higher chance of being found in archaeological records because they tend to remain well-preserved. On the other hand, plant parts often degrade quickly and are therefore not commonly observed in the record.
He also suggested that it is theoretically plausible that hunter-gatherer societies, such as the Andeans, primarily consumed meat in their diets and the shift to a plant-based diet occurred at a faster rate than previously believed.
However, Professor Haas emphasized the importance of considering western biases when studying early human diet.
According to him, the fields of archaeology and its related sciences have historically been dominated by male professionals.
”
“In Western society, hunting is typically seen as a male activity, which may have resulted in an excessive focus on hunting when studying early human economies.”
We have been mistaken in thinking that meat played a larger role in early Andean diets due to the combination of different factors.
The researchers examined the isotopic composition of the remains discovered at Wilamaya Patjxa and Soro Mik’aya Patjxa burial sites, as reported in the journal Plos One.
This approach examines the fluctuations of chemical elements in historic bones and can yield important insights into an individual’s diet, geographical origin, and other aspects of their life story.
The scientists concluded that although there is proof of the Andes hunter-gatherers consuming large mammals for sustenance around 6,500 to 9,000 years ago, it was not a primary source of their diet.
The team additionally discovered charred plant remnants at the locations.
The scientists examined tooth marks and discovered patterns that indicated tubers, such as potatoes, were a crucial component of the diet.
Jennifer Chen, a PhD student in anthropology at Penn State University in the US, stated that food is vital for survival, especially in high-altitude areas such as the Andes.
Many theories about hunter-gatherers, or foragers, focus on hunting and diets high in meat. However, it has been discovered that early hunter-gatherers in the Andes primarily consumed plant-based foods such as wild tubers.
The scientists stated that their study demonstrates, for the initial instance, that ancient human societies relied on plants as a primary source of sustenance – at least in one region of the world.
According to Professor Haas, the presence of archaeological biases in the Andes has often led archaeologists, including himself, astray. This suggests that future isotopic research in other regions will also reveal inaccuracies in the work of archaeologists.
Source: independent.co.uk
