Human membership in the large carnivore guild: Was it always “tooth and claw”?
Conventional wisdom holds that when humans began acquiring meat on a regular basis, whether by hunting or by scavenging, they became part of the large carnivore guild and, as a consequence, faced greatly increased levels of potentially life-threatening competition with other predators. This paper of...
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Elsevier
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Quaternary Environments and Humans |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950236524000021 |
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| author | John D. Speth |
| author_facet | John D. Speth |
| author_sort | John D. Speth |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Conventional wisdom holds that when humans began acquiring meat on a regular basis, whether by hunting or by scavenging, they became part of the large carnivore guild and, as a consequence, faced greatly increased levels of potentially life-threatening competition with other predators. This paper offers an alternative view based on fundamental nutritional and metabolic differences between humans, who are descended from primates of largely vegetarian heritage, and hypercarnivores, who are specialized flesh-eaters with a much greater tolerance for protein. Because of these differences, the prey choices and body-part selections made by humans and carnivores, while overlapping, are not isomorphic, with the former prioritizing fatty tissues, the latter prioritizing lean muscle. Competition and confrontation are further minimized by the fact that humans forage during the day, while most predators hunt at night. These and other lines of evidence, including numerous examples from early ethnohistoric accounts, suggest that mutual tolerance rather than deadly confrontation may often have been the most prudent and profitable course of action for all concerned. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-aacb54ee7f524e4085990c1a148ba80e |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2950-2365 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Quaternary Environments and Humans |
| spelling | doaj-art-aacb54ee7f524e4085990c1a148ba80e2025-01-10T04:38:41ZengElsevierQuaternary Environments and Humans2950-23652024-03-0122100004Human membership in the large carnivore guild: Was it always “tooth and claw”?John D. Speth0Correspondence to: Department of Anthropology, 1085 South University Ave., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109–1107, USA.; Department of Anthropology, 1085 South University, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109–1107, USAConventional wisdom holds that when humans began acquiring meat on a regular basis, whether by hunting or by scavenging, they became part of the large carnivore guild and, as a consequence, faced greatly increased levels of potentially life-threatening competition with other predators. This paper offers an alternative view based on fundamental nutritional and metabolic differences between humans, who are descended from primates of largely vegetarian heritage, and hypercarnivores, who are specialized flesh-eaters with a much greater tolerance for protein. Because of these differences, the prey choices and body-part selections made by humans and carnivores, while overlapping, are not isomorphic, with the former prioritizing fatty tissues, the latter prioritizing lean muscle. Competition and confrontation are further minimized by the fact that humans forage during the day, while most predators hunt at night. These and other lines of evidence, including numerous examples from early ethnohistoric accounts, suggest that mutual tolerance rather than deadly confrontation may often have been the most prudent and profitable course of action for all concerned.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950236524000021Large CarnivoresCarnivore GuildHuman–Carnivore InteractionHunter–GatherersHuman Evolution |
| spellingShingle | John D. Speth Human membership in the large carnivore guild: Was it always “tooth and claw”? Quaternary Environments and Humans Large Carnivores Carnivore Guild Human–Carnivore Interaction Hunter–Gatherers Human Evolution |
| title | Human membership in the large carnivore guild: Was it always “tooth and claw”? |
| title_full | Human membership in the large carnivore guild: Was it always “tooth and claw”? |
| title_fullStr | Human membership in the large carnivore guild: Was it always “tooth and claw”? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Human membership in the large carnivore guild: Was it always “tooth and claw”? |
| title_short | Human membership in the large carnivore guild: Was it always “tooth and claw”? |
| title_sort | human membership in the large carnivore guild was it always tooth and claw |
| topic | Large Carnivores Carnivore Guild Human–Carnivore Interaction Hunter–Gatherers Human Evolution |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950236524000021 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT johndspeth humanmembershipinthelargecarnivoreguildwasitalwaystoothandclaw |