Early Humans on the Menu

[Roach Clips]

<snip>
In his latest book, "Man the Hunted: Primates, Predators and Human Evolution," Sussman goes against the prevailing view and argues that primates, including early humans, evolved not as hunters but as prey of many predators, including wild dogs and cats, hyenas, eagles and crocodiles.

Despite popular theories posed in research papers and popular literature, early man was not an aggressive killer, Sussman argues. He poses a new theory, based on the fossil record and living primate species, that primates have been prey for millions of years, a fact that greatly influenced the evolution of early man.

"Our intelligence, cooperation and many other features we have as modern humans developed from our attempts to out-smart the predator," says Sussman.
<snip>

This theory, of man as a prey species rather than a predator species, seems to make alot of sense to me. I thought I'd put it out there and see what other people's opinions of this are. Link (http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Early_Humans_On_The_Menu.html)

[Dlx2]

It's not really an either/or situation. Fossil hominins WERE hunting both small and large prey. Fossil hominins WERE prey to large predators.

[Oolon Colluphid]

http://anthro.palomar.edu/hominid/images/leopard_kill.gif

www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/collections/museum/hominid/australopithicus/boisei_robustus/other_information/other_information.shtml

http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/collections/museum/hominid/australopithicus/boisei_robustus/other_information/skull.jpg

http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/collections/museum/hominid/australopithicus/boisei_robustus/other_information/attack1.gif

Nothing in any theory that hominins ate meat precludes them also getting eaten.

[Worldtraveller]

Yeah, I don't see this as some kind of groundbreaking discovery. I'll check out the article later.

Most predators have some other competition that would see them as potential prey in some situations.

Do lions eat hyenas when they kill them?

Cheers,
Lane

[yalla]

According to one TV show I watched hyenas deliberately kill lion cubs and vice versa, with the explanation being that they were thereby eliminating competition. This suggests that eating the kill, which was not mentioned, would be secondary.
FWIW.
yalla

[Ergaster]

This theory, of man as a prey species rather than a predator species, seems to make alot of sense to me. I thought I'd put it out there and see what other people's opinions of this are. Link (http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Early_Humans_On_The_Menu.html)

I guess the key word in the press release is "popular". I can't think of a single research paper I've seen that suggests that australpithecines of any species were hunters--rather the opposite. Opportunistic omnivorous (more or less) scavengers and "hunters" only in the sense of grabbing small game, birds, and reptiles. Oh, and breaking into termite mounds. I'm talking about in the last 30+ years, of course: there was the "Man the Hunter" notion way back in the 1960s but that has been abandoned for a long time.

Active large-game hunting hypotheses tend to start with at the very least Homo ergaster/erectus.

As others have suggested, this is (in a prefessional context) is a long way from being new. In fact, it's been done (http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/257.ctl), although for the South African fossils only, and not from an adaptationist viewpoint--which is the interesting part of Sussman's approach.

[anthrosciguy]

Not just were prey but are prey. Even in North America, as people are getting into more contact with large wild animals, grizzly and black bears (and polar bears up north) and cougars are human predators, as are alligators and sharks. In other places there are many other animals which are predators of humans. At the same time early hominids were no doubt at least as agressive in hunting and defense as are chimps today. If Sussman is making as "either/or" an argument as it sounds from the blurb, he's all wet -- it is not, and never was, "either/or" and few knowledgeable people ever said it was.

It's common, of course, in promoting science work to claim that it's radically new or groundbreaking instead of adding certainty to our existing knowledge of events, and I think that's one of science's biggest problems today. It's why people dismiss science because "something new" will come out soon and overturn whatever idea is out now. This is a PR problem that scientists and their PR departments at presses and universities have created and it affects all of us.

I've run in to this with Sussman (ironically) before (although it's not like he's unique in doing this -- just the opposite). He was very upset when his work on the robust australopithecine phalanges came out where he was attempting, at least in the PR, to say he was the first to say that australopithcines used tools. I pointed out that my wife had been saying that for over a decade at that time, and others had said it beforehand. I pointed out that what his work was was fantastic and important confirmation of these ideas, but that just wasn't enough for him, and it seems it isn't enough for most people anymore. No one wants to stand on shoulders anymore, it seems.

[KeithHarwood]

http://anthro.palomar.edu/hominid/images/leopard_kill.gif

www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/collections/museum/hominid/australopithicus/boisei_robustus/other_information/other_information.shtml

http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/collections/museum/hominid/australopithicus/boisei_robustus/other_information/skull.jpg

http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/collections/museum/hominid/australopithicus/boisei_robustus/other_information/attack1.gif

Nothing in any theory that hominins ate meat precludes them also getting eaten.

There was a sabre-tooth-tiger-chomps-human display in the Australia Museum twenty-odd years ago when we first came to Sydney, and it was pretty dusty then. So the idea that humans were prey is pretty old.

[RBH]

There was a sabre-tooth-tiger-chomps-human display in the Australia Museum twenty-odd years ago when we first came to Sydney, and it was pretty dusty then. So the idea that humans were prey is pretty old.Could have been eagles, too (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20060109/eaglefood_arc.html).

RBH

[lapo]

There are anedoctal reports of children beeing hunted by eagles in Kenya.