I am Ape, and I am you
The Science of a Healthy Life
Once upon a time, our ancestors learned how to cook. They did not break out 5-star dishes right away, but they cooked their crops and potatoes, grilled their roast and berries, nuts and stuff. Long before the first homo sapiens came to be.
And now, as we have entered the age of Anthropocene. As our precursors once did. Apes of various species have now started to walk the very same footprints that we left behind during our early evolution. Granted, their first humble steps in the world of cooked culinary delights are happening due to observing and learning from us.
But that is, of course, the foundation of most learning experiences, we more often than not watch and learn from those that came before us, and at times, a lucky few gets to be the ones that venture inside previously uncharted realms.
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The first dinner date
In a recently published study by the 'Royal Society' the conclusion can only be that chimpanzees (and other apes) have the same mental capability to appreciate not just a well-made dinner, but equally important the joy of cooking their own food just as us humans do. The study also revealed that the chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) involved in the study soon had grown to prefer properly cooked food so much that they were freely willing to accomplish the tasks and time needed in order to cook their own meal instead of chewing in right away on their usual diet of raw food.
in total, the study involved 9 different elements which all come together to suggest that apes, like our early ancestors are more than willing to gather and store raw food, build fireplaces and spend time cooking the food to increase the joy of eating it.
One of the scientists involved in the study draws the line to when our precursors learned to control fire, and perhaps she is correct in that one of the primary reason, together with keeping warm, for mastering the use of fire was to simply put, eat tastier food.
But be that as it may, cooking our food, and controlling fire, was an important step in early human evolution, and while we did that many eons ago. It does not make it any less fascinating and wonderful to now see chimpanzees follow in those very same evolutionary footprints.
The wild chimpanzees involved in the study all lived at the Jane Goodall Institute's Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center which is located in the Republic of Congo. And hopefully, they will manage to stay away from marshmallows and other shit and stick to cooking healthy and sane gourmet dinners. You know, if for nothing else to avoid obesity and diabetes and similar food-related health issues that plagues their human cousins daily food reality. But either way, it is an utterly enchanting thing happening before our eyes. And I for one can not wait to one day enjoy a dinner date in a pleasant, green living village where the food is cooked and served by a newly graduated chimpanzee iron chef =).
"This type of comparative psychological evidence can tell us a great deal about our evolutionary past. I think it supports the idea that cooking emerged early in human evolution, because it suggests all the cognitive pieces were there. All we needed was control of fire."
Alexandra Rosati, co-author of the study - Yale University's Department of Psychology
Cooking lessons and dinner dates
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