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| "Julaftonen" by Carl Larsson (1904) |
Before humanity
Humans are primates belonging to the subgroup known as great apes. Primates are believed to have evolved around 65 million years ago, following the mass extinction event which brought an end to the age of dinosaurs. Apes evolved around 25 million years ago, mostly or exclusively in heavily forested environments. Our primate cousins – monkeys and lesser apes – never really left their homes in the branches and tend to eat mostly leaves and fruit. Other great apes are still animals of the forest but they are bigger and able to roam forest floors. At least 87% of their diet is plant based (especially fruit), supplemented by insects. Chimpanzees, our closest relative, also eat meat. Our lineage separated from the chimpanzee line around 7 million years ago, so it is likely our ancestors have been eating meat (and other parts of animals, such as organs and bone marrow) for millions of years – ie, long before we evolved into modern humans.
Becoming human
There are some significant differences between humans and other primates – the size of our brains, the size of our guts, and our sophisticated tools.
First. The human brain is many times larger than would be expected for a primate of similar body size. This means humans have a greater need to consume energy and nutrient dense diets (ie, foods high in protein and fat). The diet of chimpanzees is around 5-10% animal based, while contemporary hunter-gatherer humans derive 28-58% of their energy intake from animal foods – though location is key. Where more plants are more readily available humans will eat them in greater proportions compared to animal foods. Hence hunter-gatherer humans in tropical regions eat more plants than animal foods, while foragers in colder climates eat more animal foods than plants (Leonard et al).
Second. Human guts are very different from other ape species. Our stomachs are almost the same in size as most other apes, but our small intestines are roughly twice as long as any other ape and our colon is more than half the length of all other apes (Milton). What this means is that we are not designed to eat the large volume of low nutrient food (aka, plants) that apes eat, rather we are designed – at least when compared to other apes – to also eat nutrient dense food (which for our ancestors included animal foods).
“In many respects, the human gut is more similar to that of a carnivore and reflects an adaptation to an easily digestible diet that is higher in energy and fat [Leonard et al]”.
Third. For well over a million years our ancestors have been using increasingly sophisticated tools; tools that can replicate the use that carnivores make of their distinctively long and sharp teeth. Sharp cutting tools removed the need for our ancestors to evolve the tooth structure typically seen in mammals with an animal rich diet. These tools made us better at killing other animals and breaking their bodies up for consumption, as well as diversifying what we could do with plant foods.
The evolutionary push towards greater animal consumption and increasingly sophisticated tool use seems to have been an adaptation to climate change. Around 2 million years ago Africa became cooler and drier, the rainforests of our more animalistic ancestors thinned out into more open woodlands and grasslands, leading to a reduction in edible plants and an increasing abundance of large grazing herbivores (Leonard et al, Milton). Evolution took its course and we did what we could with the food sources that were available to us at the time.
Enter Prometheus
Our species, homo sapiens, is thought to have emerged around 200,000 years ago – almost certainly following mastery of the art of fire control, which eventually led to cooking. It is unclear when fire control began but it was likely before the split between homo sapiens, neanderthals and denisovans, so at least 275,000 years ago (and perhaps as much as 650,000 years ago). With the emergence of cooking humans were able to increase the digestibility and energy of food, whether plant or animal based. It is theorised that humans cannot extract sufficient energy from uncooked wild foods, whether from animal or plant sources, and are thus now biologically committed to cooking (Carmody et al).
Exit Africa
Homo sapiens is thought to have evolved in Africa, where bow and arrow technology emerged between 80,000 to 60,000 years ago (which would have been a technological leap for hunters), and then migrated out via the Middle East – we can’t be sure when, but at least 60,000 years ago. Low level interbreeding with neanderthals took place. During this exit from Africa period megafauna in Eurasia were abundant, including the mammoth – which appears to have been a major food source for our ancestors. A study of homo sapiens’ diet in Ukraine, at a date of somewhere between 37,800 to 33,100 years ago, demonstrated that mammoth was a primary food source, although antelopes, horses, deer and hare were also eaten. The same study also showed that homo sapiens ate higher amounts of plant foods compared to European neanderthals (Drucker). Having a more flexible diet (and better technology) may have been among the reasons homo sapiens eventually overwhelmed neanderthal populations. Even so, the abundance of megafauna appears to have been key to human prosperity until they became mostly extinct by around 10,000 years ago. Megafauna extinction was at least partly related to human over-hunting, however, climate change (leading to environmental change) was perhaps a more significant factor. In Eurasia megafauna extinction was more or less simultaneous with the replacement of vast tundra by huge areas of forest in which mostly only smaller animals were able to thrive.
Becoming European
The bulk of Germanic paternity derives from: (1) native hunter-gatherers (largely represented by Y-DNA haplogroups I1 and I2) who had lived in Europe since at least the mesolithic age, and had engaged in low levels of interbreeding with early farmers who migrated to Europe from the near east during the neolithic age (predominantly represented by Y-DNA haplogroup G2a, plus smaller numbers of other near eastern lineages); as well as (2) Indo-Europeans (represented by Y-DNA haplogroups R1a and R1b) who came to Europe during the bronze age (3500 to 1000 BCE).
Farming gradually spread into Europe from the near east from around 7000 BCE onwards. By 5000 BCE farming had reach the Rhine area and by 4000 BCE it had reached Britain, Denmark and southern Sweden. Throughout the neolithic period European farmers interbred with, and taught their ways to, pre-existing hunter-gatherer communities. The latter had a diet dominated by fish, deer, aurochs (a now extinct species of cattle), boar and wild European plants, while the neolithic farmers ate a diet that featured domesticated sheep, goats, cattle and pigs, plus fish, as well as barley, wheat, peas and lentils. Archeologists have confirmed that dairy products were consumed by neolithic farmers, despite most adult Europeans being lactose-intolerant throughout this period.
Ultimately it was the Indo-Europeans (also known as the Yamnaya people, originally they appear to have come from the general region of Ukraine, southern Russia and Kazakhstan) who became the predominant ethnicity in Europe from the bronze age onwards.* The Indo-European diet relied heavily on herded cattle and sheep, including dairy farming, as well as hunting and fishing. Horses were crucial to their culture and mobility, and would have also featured in their diet. As they interbred with the natives of northern Europe, which by now included neolithic farmers, the corded ware culture emerged (circa 3000-2350 BCE). The diet of these people was rich in fish, animal protein, plants and milk products – similar to that of the Indo-Europeans. Dairy farming was an integral part of their diet, assisted by the genes of their Indo-European ancestors who appear to be responsible for the introduction of the lactose-tolerance mutation that allows most adult Europeans to consume milk. Modern Germanic Europeans have amongst the highest frequencies of lactose persistence in the world (89-96% in Britain and Scandinavia; 62-86% in central and western Europe). A less welcome genetic inheritance from the Indo-Europeans is a predisposition to develop gluten intolerance (which is in turn associated with a number of other autoimmune disorders) – not only in Europe but wherever the descendants of Indo-Europeans live today, including northern India, northern Africa, the Americas and Australasia.
The pre-Christian Germanic diet
The Germanic peoples are first described during the Roman period, most notably by Tacitus who wrote in the 1st century CE that the Germanic tribes:
“have a liquid made out of barley or other grain, fermented into a certain resemblance to wine [ie, beer] … Their food is plain: wild fruit, fresh game, or curdled milk. They satisfy their hunger without elaborate preparation or seasonings [Tacitus, Agricola and Germany, Oxford]”.
Fast-forward to the Viking age and the Germanic diet was rich in meat (beef was the most popular, followed by meat from pigs, sheep, goats, chicken, geese, duck and sometimes seal, which was hunted, as well as horse meat on special occasions), at least 26 types of fish (herring being the most important), eggs, vegetables (especially cabbage, onions, beans, peas, parsnips and celery), cereals (typically unleavened rye bread or porridge made from barley, oats, buckwheat and millet, while the elite sometimes ate bread made from wheat) and milk products from cows, goats and sheep. Sweet food was consumed in smaller portions in the form of berries (especially raspberries and bilberries), fruit (mostly plums and apples) and honey. Hazelnuts and walnuts were also eaten, as were mushrooms, and wild plants and herbs, such as dill, juniper, caraway, mustard seed, garlic, horseradish, coriander, marjoram, mint, thyme, mugwort, chicory, chamomile, angelica and yarrow. Medieval trading in the east also introduced allspice, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Weak beer made from barley was consumed in large quantities by adults and children alike as it was generally safer to drink than water. Stronger beer and mead, made from fermented honey and spices, was consumed on festive occasions. Wine made from grapes was imported from France but drunk sparingly by only the most elite individuals or used to flavour stew.
Conclusion – for a child of the Germanic tribes
Arguably, it is unethical to expect an animal to eat in a manner inconsistent with its biology. When it comes to our biology, it is clear that our ancestors ate whatever was available and could be safely consumed in the regions in which they lived. For the last few hundreds of thousands of years that has meant a diet rich in meat and fish plus whatever non-toxic plant foods were around. Within the last 6000 years cereals, pulses and dairy foods have enriched our diet. Through all of this period cooking has been crucial, fasting would have been routine due to periodic food scarcity, a species of refrigeration was available due to the cold climate of the European north, and fermentation has become increasingly important over the last few thousand years. It would possibly be a folly to suggest we should only eat the foods of our ancestors – plant foods indigenous to previously unexplored parts of the world have improved the taste and nutritional value of the Western diet in the last few centuries. However, other highly processed foods of the industrial age seem to be a bit of a poisoned chalice. The over-abundance of sugar and bread made of super refined wheat flour that has a greater gluten content (= extra fluffiness) than any pre-modern person could have dreamed of seem to be doing our waistlines few favours. Eating food that is as close to nature as possible, while allowing for cooking, refrigeration and fermentation, is probably the way to go. If you want something sweet forgo sugar entirely and add honey instead; if you want bread then avoid the ubiquitous white and fluffy stuff and go for something more medieval. Skip the quick oats and cook porridge properly. Avoid the faux milks in their infinite variety and go for whole raw milk. Avoid vegetable oils that can only be extracted via intense mechanical and chemical processes and stick to the more traditional alternatives, such as butter, duck fat and olive oil. And not least – unprocessed meat and (low mercury) fish, such as mackerel, salmon, trout, herring, sardines and anchovies, are excellent sources of nutrient dense protein.
* Especially in Celtic regions, where the Indo-European lineage dominates – in Ireland, Scotland, Brittany and the Basque country it accounts for more than 80% of paternity. The paternal mix of Germanic people today is roughly 40-70% Indo-European, 20-40% indigenous hunter-gatherers, 2-15% neolithic farmers, as well as small numbers of other lineages deriving from southern Europe, the near east and north Asia.
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Sources (not in order)
https://australian.museum/learn/science/human-evolution/humans-are-apes-great-apes/
https://australian.museum/learn/science/human-evolution/how-have-we-changed-since-our-species-first-appeared/
https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/133/11/3886S/4818038 [Milton]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4860691/ [Carmody]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53561/#ch1.s5 [Leonard et al]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3020090/
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Tacitus, Agricola and Germany, Oxford World Classics
Written by M' Sentia Figula (aka Freki), find me at neo polytheist and romanpagan.wordpress.com
Cream of wheat and samanak? Next step is the big bear I mean beer!
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