Food Created Civilization

            Food is easily the most important thing in society today. Not only is it critical for our nourishment and survival, but it is also critical for nearly all interpersonal interactions. Most things that we do involve food. We celebrate holidays with food, we use food to meet other people, and we use food to help us get to know each other better. As human beings we have very special needs that no other animal has. People can eat a tremendous variety of foods that come from tons of different places and climates. And finally we are the only animal that cooks its food.  This sounds like a disadvantage when you consider how much work cooking is, but in reality it may have allowed mankind to become so intelligent and powerful.

            Cooking today is a largely social experience. Families often cook together to bond, and as we all know how awesome cooking in groups in culinary class is. Cooking is basically group problem solving. A group has an objective, which is to cook the food, and they must use the tools around them to complete that objective. The social part of this requires good communication skills to effectively communicate with others, and the problem solving part is actually figuring out how to cook the food properly. So cooking requires excellent communication skills, as well as good problem solving skills. Now let’s look at the main things that separate us from animals: We have great communication skills that allow us to talk to each other in dozens of different languages, as well as unspoken body language. This communication has allowed us to form tribes, clans, and eventually civilizations and countries. Also, people have a very developed brain that allows for higher thinking and problem solving. This allowed us to create civilizations with laws and to defend ourselves from our enemies. So communication and problem solving were the skills that allowed mankind to create civilization, and those also happen to be the same skills required to cook in a group. Hmm interesting. So essentially cooking helped our monkey ancestors learn to speak and it helped them evolve bigger, smarter brains. And with these new brains and languages they continued to cook and while they were at it they decided to start creating civilizations and building pyramids. So essentially cooking is the reason why people are the dominant species on earth. Cooking is the most important thing that people have ever done. Cooking made us great, and as long as we keep cooking we will become even better.

Vikram M.