Monday Morning

~ Laura

I’m surfing through the newspapers and the online magazines looking for the hot topic du jour, but I’m coming up empty. Common Core? Sorry, but I find it a snore. Hollywood sex rings? Juicy, but not much to add to the topic. Personal parenting stories? Well, things are pretty calm around here. Also, I won’t blog about my oldest kid anymore without his approval. Hmmmm.

I’m mildly concerned that my hunter-gatherer ancestors could put me in a headlock, so I think I’ll head to the gym this morning.

Published by Laura

18 thoughts on “Monday Morning”

  1. I’m limping and supposed to do my second half marathon in six days. My tendons won’t let me train. But, I think I’ve managed to get older than most hunter gatherers.

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      1. I sort of doubt it. They couldn’t possibly have eaten as much sugar as I have and I doubt they used either chewing tobacco or coffee.

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  2. It’s possible that people who author books like “The Paleo Solution” and “The Paleo Diet” might not be the most unbiased sources of information about the lives of hunter gatherers. I imagine their solution to the millennia-long problem of agriculture is that each individual fatty just needs to stop gorging on hot cheetos and go do some burpees rather than proposing the kind of structural changes that would help people incorporate activity into their everyday lives.

    We adopted a dog a few months ago and I’ve been amazed how much the paleo thing has taken over the dog food world. The rescue organization made us sign a form promising not to feed our dog any food with grains in it.

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    1. That means you need to feed it the gummy bears from the Whole Foods that are sweetened with sugar instead of corn syrup.

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    2. Oh my gosh.

      When I lived in Russia in the later 90s, the normal thing was to feed your dog kasha (i.e. hot cereal like oatmeal or buckwheat kasha).

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      2. My grandparents ate mostly beans and potatoes in the old country (now Slovenia) and obesity and diabetes was unknown.

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      3. Has anyone done a satire where a bunch of Paleo enthusiasts travel to other countries to lecture people about the dangers of grains? If not, someone should.

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      4. In China dogs eat rice gruel. According to my friend, it’s her dog’s favorite, more than meat bones.

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    3. I could understand this wrt cats, since they are obligate carnivores, but I don’t get it wrt to dogs. Dogs are omnivores. I wouldn’t feed them only grains, but some isn’t going to hurt.

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    4. Far be it from me to suggest one might not follow every contract. On the other hand, is the dog going to call up the rescue organization to rat you out? What if the dog likes kibble?

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  3. The linked article is a little unclear about whether it is discussing hunter-gatherers or agriculturalists. With respect to agriculturalists, my understanding is that humans today are not only healthier, but much larger than they were several thousand years ago. And you know that a good big man beats a good little man. So even if our ancestors had denser bones (which is the only thing the paleontologists in the article seem to be measuring), we could probably take them, one on one.

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    1. Personally, I’d call in the Marines, if it came to a fight with our ancestors.

      I’m in favor of agriculture, education, roads, bronze working, iron working, navigation, medicine, professional armed forces, a government to provide for the common defense.

      All of a sudden I have this mad urge to play Civilization. Or watch Life of Brian. While consuming “Hot Cheetos,” whatever they may be.

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    2. Hunger gatherers were taller than agriculturalists. We lost a lot of height after the ag. revolution. I’ve read in some probably now discredited article that pre agriculture women averaged around 5’7″ and men around 6′ or so. I wouldn’t be surprised if early humans were much stronger–chimpanzees and gorillas are also far stronger than modern humans, and so probably were neanderthals. What I’m not so sure about is why we should care. I don’t live a lifestyle which requires me to carry 50 lbs 20 miles a day, so I’m not sure why I should want to cultivate that skill at the expense of other more relevant ones.

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      1. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/farmers-assimilated-foragers-they-spread-agriculture

        Farmers FTW.

        In a Darwinian sense, that is. The farmers assimilated the hunter-gatherers as they gradually spread north. The farmers were able to build larger societies, with greater genetic diversity. They were able to support people who specialized in producing culture, and warfare.

        Even the Mongols were eventually tamed by the settled peoples.

        Sure, it’d be nice to be tall and tough. However, modern humans are not “feeble.” They’re specialized.

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