Prompt #1: The Cooking Ape

Wrangham uses many casual links to show how humans have adapted over time. He uses the examples of differences between the chimpanzees and gorillas in their way of eating. He says that gorillas’ ability to adapt is how they survive. Wrangham claims that both chimps and gorillas’ typically eat fruit but if there is no fruit available gorillas can adapt and shift their diet to strictly plant materials where as chimps continue to search for the fruit. Wrangham then continues to link these changes to how Humans “evolved” from apes by the simplest changes. Wrangham mentions that our bodies have changed around the simplicity of cooking our meals. He claims that our teeth and jaws have shrunk due to the fact we do not need them to as much with cooked food as we did with raw food. He also makes the statement of how our ancestor’s calorie intake was much lower than our calorie intake based on the fact that the food they ate was much more indigestible. Their food also included much more fiber which would take longer to break down. Because of this increase in calories with the lack of fiber it has caused our brains to get larger and he also says it has cause women to gain weight. Wrangham uses these links to pull the article together by discussing the impact cooking has had on the social aspect of society. He claims that our ancestors would have the women cook for the men in exchange for protection from other people, and this leads to how women received their role of being the ones in charge of meals.