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I am not a biologist or anything of that ilk, however I am a bit skeptical that the chimps understood the concept of "cooking" the food. It seems more likely th
by sageabilly 11y ago
I am not a biologist or anything of that ilk, however I am a bit skeptical that the chimps understood the concept of "cooking" the food. It seems more likely that they understood "hey if I do X, then the food gets more tasty" with X being put the food they have (which is raw) in the "cooking device". Making the leap to saying "yes they totally understand the concept of cooking" seems a bit anthropomorphizing.
- jdavis703 11y agoTo be fair the article added this anthropomorphism. What the scientists found is unlike most animal species, the chimpanzees had enough self-restraint to not eat raw food the moment they found it, if they knew they had the chance to improve it later on.
- x5n1 11y agoI speculate that early humans cooked the food for the same reason. How would I prove that, I don't know. But they were not thinking about the nutrient value or killing of bacteria. They probably had a concept of being sickened by food and learned that certain foods will not make you sick if you do this to them first, but initially I think it had to do with taste.