4 ms·

One large animal can feed a family for many months if the meat is preserved/dried. There were no grains before agricultural revolution.

kjkjadksj 3y ago
People were making products like acorn flour and breads from that for millennia. Even in societies that never cultivated wheat.
RoyalHenOil 3y ago
"Grain" refers to small, hard, edible seeds. They include not only cereals, but also peas, beans, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, mustard seeds, buckwheat seeds, chia seeds, etc., etc. Grains can come from a huge variety of both wild and domesticated plants. While grains are less important to hunter-gatherering societies than they are to farming societies, grains nevertheless have been a part of the human diet since long before agriculture. The big difference here is that most hunter-gatherers ate extremely diverse diets. Their diets were not dominated by a couple species of cereal grains, like later diets were. Instead, they were eating a huge array of different grains, nuts, fruit, tubers, mushrooms, fish, insects, etc., on a seasonal and regional basis.
brnt 3y ago
It is not likely meat was preserved for any length of time back then. There were no methods to do so. Look at how predators work now: they eat what they can and the rest is lost.
- huytersd 3y ago
  Smoked/dried meat keeps for a long time. Months sometimes. Anecdotally I know salted dried shrimp and fish keeps for several years.
- Modified3019 3y ago
  In addition to simple drying/smoking already mentioned, it’s possible to preserve food in different ways depending on conditions and food type, with different types of burying. In some cases this is done to keep things dry, in others it’s to result in fermentation.
- Fricken 3y ago
  Prairie natives had pemmiccan, which could be stored for a couple years.
- marssaxman 3y ago
  I can't imagine what you could mean by that - smoking meat for preservation has been practiced since Paleolithic times, likely about as long as humans have been cooking with fire at all.

kjkjadksj 3y ago

People were making products like acorn flour and breads from that for millennia. Even in societies that never cultivated wheat.

RoyalHenOil 3y ago

"Grain" refers to small, hard, edible seeds. They include not only cereals, but also peas, beans, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, mustard seeds, buckwheat seeds, chia seeds, etc., etc. Grains can come from a huge variety of both wild and domesticated plants. While grains are less important to hunter-gatherering societies than they are to farming societies, grains nevertheless have been a part of the human diet since long before agriculture. The big difference here is that most hunter-gatherers ate extremely diverse diets. Their diets were not dominated by a couple species of cereal grains, like later diets were. Instead, they were eating a huge array of different grains, nuts, fruit, tubers, mushrooms, fish, insects, etc., on a seasonal and regional basis.

brnt 3y ago

It is not likely meat was preserved for any length of time back then. There were no methods to do so. Look at how predators work now: they eat what they can and the rest is lost.

huytersd 3y ago
Smoked/dried meat keeps for a long time. Months sometimes. Anecdotally I know salted dried shrimp and fish keeps for several years.
Modified3019 3y ago
In addition to simple drying/smoking already mentioned, it’s possible to preserve food in different ways depending on conditions and food type, with different types of burying. In some cases this is done to keep things dry, in others it’s to result in fermentation.
Fricken 3y ago
Prairie natives had pemmiccan, which could be stored for a couple years.
marssaxman 3y ago
I can't imagine what you could mean by that - smoking meat for preservation has been practiced since Paleolithic times, likely about as long as humans have been cooking with fire at all.