ABSTRACT
We noted in the last chapter that the rst primates ate insects and so did not depend on plants for sustenance. But it is also true that these primates lived in trees and so depended on plants for shelter and protection against predators. In a very real sense, the long lineage of primates owes its success to plants in various ways. The line leading to Homo sapiens interests us most, and here we nd strong evidence of plant use. The Australopithecines (Figure 3.1) (Chapter 2) were plant eaters, although they may have supplemented their diets with the scavenging of carcasses that carnivores had not eaten, at least not completely. When we arrive at our genus about 2-2.5 million years ago, controversy erupts. Many generations of male paleoanthropologists have asserted the importance of hunting in the belief that meat provided the calories and nutrients necessary for the human brain to enlarge.1 Not only was hunting important, but also men drove our evolution because they were the hunters. This hypothesis relegated women to the margins. They cared for the children and awaited the return of men from the hunt. Women were content to supplement the meat diet with edible plants. They dug roots and tubers and collected edible leaves, berries, nuts, seeds, and other plant foods. This sexist view is difcult to sustain. For one thing, where women were the collectors in a region of abundant plant resources, they were in a sense the breadwinners and their status was high. There is also evidence from modern hunter-gatherers that men joined women in collecting edible plants. The same also appears to be true of hunting. The current emphasis on Neanderthal women (Figure 3.2) is that they participated in the hunt.2 In some examinations of modern hunter-gatherers, women too join the hunt. Men were thus no more the drivers of evolution than women. Given these suppositions, this chapter assumes that women played a vital economic role. As important as meat may have been, humans were primarily plant consumers and to the extent that women participated in the procurement of plants, they deserve special attention for the role that they played in our evolution.
The rst primates evolved in forests during the radiation of owering plants. From an early date, owering plants would provide sustenance to primates. Even plants whose role has been to provide humans with roots or tubers are owering plants. The sweet potato and potato, for example, supply important nutrients and calories, even though humans do not use the owers, seeds, leaves, or stems in any notable way. The early ancestors of humans ate roots, tubers, and the forerunners of pistachios, walnuts, and mango. Surely, wild acorns must have been prevalent in deciduous forests. The prominence of acorns in Native American mythology supports the notion
