Kristen Gremillion's Ancestral Appetite: Summary

Throughout history, in all forms of life, there has been one undeniable trend that has evolved and altered but still remained one of the basic necessities of life, eating. In Kristen J. Gremillion’s Ancestral Appetite: Food in Prehistory she sets up the history of eating, what and how people have eaten in the past few million years and her theory on how that has led to modern diets. As this work is set up in chronological order, Gremillion points out the major inventions, events, and changes to the world that added to the growth and evolution of the modern humans diet. With the help of archeological sites, wide range of sciences, and the known history, Kristen Gremillion attempts to prove that biology, culture, and invention are the reasons that people eat what they eat.
Kristen Gremillion started with The Australopithecines, the most ancient, well documented, species related to the modern human. This species dates back to two millions years ago and through fossils that have been recovered, it has been discovered that they manufactured simple stone tools, survived through hunting and gathering, and may have taken on the …show more content…
From gathering and basic stone tools to hunt, to the creation of fire, to fishing, spears and bows, to the creation and then expansion of agriculture and then the socialization, ecological issues, and growth in population that has resulted from all of that, the modern humans diet has diversified and grown over the past two million years. This book is crucial to world history because it is tied into every civilization in every part of the world at any time in history, eating has and always will be a part of human life and that will never change. Ancestral Appetite is a book that goes back two million years ago but can still be understood and made relatable to a reader in the 21st