Diet Culture Essay

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Introduction Diet in Different Cultures: Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons, Batak and Koreans It is important to study diet of different cultures in anthropology because food is essential in human existence. Food is insufficient commodity and thus offers a good platform for debate and advancing anthropological theories and research methods (Hockett & Haws, 2003). In addition, the study of diet brings about light on societal processes like political economic value creation, social construction of memory as well as symbolic value creation (Dirks & Hunter, 2013). This topic has created a good arena for debating cultural and historical importance in relationship to structural and symbolic explanations of human behavior. Through this, it is possible to …show more content…

To ensure that humanity is understood in totality, study of diet is thus inevitable. Therefore, in our cases here, four diet culture that include Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons, Batak and Koreans will be discussed. Diet Culture in Neanderthal The culture of diet in Neanderthals have been studied for a very long time by scientists. This is to establish what they ate, the reasons behind their population patterns as well as reasons for becoming extinct. The topic is able to understand the culture change behind the early man and what he ate more between meat and plant. Diet is a very important aspect of life and culture revolves mostly around what people eat (Hardy et al 2013). Study of Neanderthal culture reveals that for them to survive, diet was inevitable. Diet acted as a unifying factor in all aspect of their culture. First, diet dictated their settlement patterns. It is diet that ensured Neanderthal man lived in a cluster settlement of at least thirty people to enhance their survivor in hunting (Hockett & Haws, 2003). The reason being, food availability depended on team work and thus creating a cluster culture of …show more content…

Neanderthal tool culture inclined toward hunting according to Takacs & Cline 2015. They had sharp tools fashioned for cutting meat as well as for cracking bones open. Thus, their culture in general and their cultural belief revolved around their diet. Diet Culture in Cro-Magnons Cro-Magnons were the closer species of man after Neanderthals. They were more pronounced mentally and intelligent than their predecessors (Montgomery & Bennett, 1979). This is especially due to adaptation in their diet culture. To adapt to more harsh conditions than their predecessors, they had to come up with more sophisticated tools to enhance hunting and gathering. Diet related closely with the culture of tools Cro-Magnons used. To ensure that they adopted in a more diet competitive environment, tools involution was inevitable. The tools that they had were sharp and lighter to ensure that they can kill an animal faster and in a longer range (Sistiaga et al 2014). Diet also influenced their clothing culture. Cro-Magnons used animal hides they got from their catch to make clothing, bedding, shelters and robes (Fagan, 1996). They used needles that were sharpened from bones of the animals they killed to sew skin in making clothing and beddings among many other

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