Read more: Human nature: Six things we all do
Compared with other animals, the feeding behaviour of humans is exceedingly odd. Where they just eat, we make a meal of it. The main difference is down to one of humanity鈥檚 greatest inventions: cooking. People in every culture cook at least some of their food, says Richard Wrangham at Harvard University. He has made a persuasive case that cooked food, which delivers more calories with much less chewing than raw food, was the key innovation that enabled our ancestors to evolve big energy-hungry brains and become the smart, social creatures we are today (New Scientist, 16 July 2010, p 12). Chimps spend at least 6 hours a day chewing, he notes, humans, less than 1. That leaves a lot of free time for culture.
Culinary culture includes the strange phenomenon of ritualised, familial, food-sharing, otherwise known as mealtimes. Chimps eat their food individually, as they find it throughout the day. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not as if chimps ever meet to eat,鈥� says Wrangham. But we do. In every human society, people gather in family groups at more or less regular times of day to eat what has been cooked. And wherever you go, these everyday meals tend to be cooked by women. We don鈥檛 know why 鈥� perhaps originally in exchange for men鈥檚 protection, or because childcare kept women closer to home.
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Then there鈥檚 feasting. From sharing the spoils of a good hunt, to celebrating a special occasion, every society does it. And here you are more likely to find men cooking. We even see this in our own backyards, where they do most of the barbecuing. 鈥淢y own thinking is it has something to do with establishing a reputation as being generous, in control of the high-quality food,鈥� says Wrangham.
The way humans meet to eat is a big departure from the every-individual-for-itself approach taken by other animals. For us, eating is much more than mere nourishment. 鈥淚n all cultures, food is used to form social bonds,鈥� says anthropologist Polly Wiessner at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Mealtimes are the centrepiece of family life, feasting bonds friends, colleagues and communities, and we also use food to consolidate more intimate relationships, sharing a fancy meal with that special someone, for example, or giving chocolates on Valentine鈥檚 day.
So food draws us together, but it sets us apart as well. Every culture has its own food traditions and taboos, which help define the boundaries between 鈥渦s鈥� and 鈥渢hem鈥�. They have distinctive cuisines too. 鈥淓thnic differences are marked by what kind of food you eat,鈥� says Weissner. 鈥淵ou are what you eat.鈥�
