A couple of anthropologists are suggesting early man was far less the hunter, than the hunted.

At the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Washington, D.C., anthropologist Donna Hart of the University of Missouri in St. Louis presented the argument that fossil evidence and the experience today of monkeys and apes, the closest relatives to humans, “supports a ‘Man, the Hunted’ theory of evolution.”

Looking at fossils of early humans more than a million years old, Hart and her colleague, Robert Sussman of Washington University, argue that numerous examples of skulls bearing bite marks, some the kind made by saber-toothed cats and leopards, show up from sites in Asia and Africa. Further, the evidence for weapons — needed to hunt down that mastadon — and control of fire — needed to turn that mastodon into a meal — don’t turn up much later in the archaeological record.

Going back 2.5 to 5 million years ago, Hart and Sussman concentrated on the species Australopithecus afarensis. According to Sussman:

Australopithecus afarensis probably quite strong, like a small ape. Adults ranged from around 3 feet to 5 feet tall and weighed 60-100 pounds. They were basically smallish bipedal primates. Their teeth were relatively small, very much like modern humans, and they were fruit and nut eaters.

…

The predators living at the same time as A. afarensis were huge and there were 10 times as many as today. There were hyenas as big as bears, as well as saber-toothed cats and many other mega-sized carnivores, reptiles and raptors.

A. afarensis didn’t have tools, didn’t have big teeth and wasn’t very tall. He was using his brain, his agility and his social skills to get away from these predators.

…

Approximately 6 percent to 10 percent of early humans were preyed upon, according to evidence such as teeth marks on bones, talon marks on skulls and holes in a fossil cranium into which saber-tooth cat fangs fit.

The predation rate on savannah antelope and certain ground-living monkeys today is around 6 percent to 10 percent as well.

They further assert: many of our modern human traits, including those of cooperation and socialization, developed as a result of being a prey species and the early human’s ability to outsmart the predators.

Could it be if we returned to our pre-predator vegetarian ways we could actually unevolve into the peaceful, cooperative and social animals we may once have been?

I may well have to mull that over my steak tonight.

Hart and Sussman have compiled their research and theory in their book: Man the Hunted.

Footnote: As Jack should be back later this evening and, no doubt, up and posting tomorrow, I would like to thank him for the opportunity to come over here and exercise my brain a bit. Thus, my heartfelt thanks to Jack and his readers for the hospitality.