Investigating the role of food processing in human evolution: a niche construction approach
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Processing techniques such as grinding, boiling, fermenting, and roasting were gradually adopted to enhance nutrient bioavailability from plant and animal foods, further increasing the amount of food extractable from a given area of land.
“Processing techniques such as grinding, boiling, fermenting, and roasting were gradually adopted to enhance nutrient bioavailability from plant and animal foods, further increasing the amount of food extractable from a given area of land (59).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [59]
These processing techniques may have boosted nutritional returns on foraging efforts for small seeds and tubers to levels that made them worth exploiting at high levels for the first time, potentially setting them on course to later domestication.
“These techniques may have boosted the nutritional returns on foraging efforts for small seeds and tubers to levels that made them worth exploiting at high levels for the first time (59), thereby potentially setting them on course to later domestication (60).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [59]
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Ellis, E. C., Kaplan, J. O., Fuller, D. Q., Vavrus, S., Klein Goldewijk, K., & Verburg, P. H. (2013) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1217241110 · Cited by 812 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Wollstonecroft, M. M.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Wollstonecroft, Michèle M.
- Venue
- Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
- Published
- 2011-03
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 141-150
- ISSN
- 1866-9557 (ISSN-L)
- 1866-9565
- OpenAlex
- W2015588833
- Cited by
- 99
- References
- 70
- Citations by year
- 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 34 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 16.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- British Academy
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Keywords
- food processing, human evolution, niche construction theory, cultural niche construction, post-harvest processing, selection pressure, energy intake, diet breadth, food safety, brain evolution, locomotor adaptation, longevity, juvenile survival, disease prevention
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