Upon first hearing about Paleofantasy, I thought that it was a book about diet and nutrition (the popular "Paleo Diet" came to mind) that was going to explain how the way our bodies have evolved should influence our diets. It does, in a way, but by dis-affirming how diets based on the way "our ancestors ate" still fit in today's society.It instead shows that we should base our dietary means on the fact that we are NOT the same as our prehistoric ancestors. At least that is what I got from the first couple of pages. We have evolved and should adjust according.
In addition to debunking and correcting the caveman diet fantasy, the author, Marlene Zuk, covers many other topics such as gender stereotypes and the paleo family. I believe that these subjects are important to set straight because they are such a large part of societal belief. People are misinformed, I included, and I applaud Zuk for finding evidence and reason to explain the truth behind these claims. I hope that this book will be not only interesting, but also reveal how the study of evolution can be applied to ideals that we encounter every day as well as explain where the future of our species is headed.
It is interesting that Zuk will be discussing not only the "caveman diet fantasy" but also the gender stereotypes and paelo family as well. I can't wait to see how Zuk links everything together and relates it to our everyday life. That is one reason why I chose this book because I was hoping for a way to relate this to my life.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of y'all. I had never really heard any arguments for how paleo- family structures and paleo-gender roles should affect our modern conceptions of these norms. While I disagree with the diet aspect of the paleo argument, I am interested in the idea that many of us do not engage in the healthy social behaviors we evolved to benefit from and make us happy. This brings to mind the image of the energy drink fueled, neck-bearded, World of Warcraft player.... (no offense!) I think our ancestors might have something wise to say about that...
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