If our early ancestors would have been vegetarians, how screwed up would we be now? Would we have evolved?

Answer 1

No. Meat is a hugely nutritious source of food, contains large amounts of protein and very large amounts of energy can be got from it. Without it humans would not have been able to evolve the large brains we did, what with brain tissue being the single most expensive (in terms of energy consumption) in the body, and without meat it would have been almost impossible to develop and sustain. Nowadays veggies can get enough nutrients and energy without meat, people couldn't then.
Thus without meat the larger brain size we've evolved, and the intelligence that came with it, would not have come about.
Also, eating meat likely caused many social developments that would not have happened otherwise. In fact meat was one of the largest reasons we ever really needed as large brains as we did in the first place, as so much less brain power is needed to gather plants than to hunt other animals. Hunting thus created a need for intelligence. Not only that, but it also created a great need for teamwork and cooperation and is probably one of the main reasons behind the development of language and the strong social structure humans possess. Neither would we have developed out affinity for tools, as many were needed for things like killing, skinning or butchering animals. Without tools, and fire for that matter, I find it unlikely we ever would have progressed in the way we did.

Obviously there are intelligent vegetarian animals out there, like gorillas, but without meat we would never have attained the levels of intelligence or society we did, and we would never have become as adept at tools. Thus we would be living in the stone age at best. Without the intelligence we evolved we would never have been able to problem solve in the way we can, and would never have invented or discovered things like metal, clothes, houses, farming, etc. Without tools we would have been very limited in what we could do anyway. (We would have had tools, but they'd probably only have been very primitive and simple.) I don't think I need to explain why society is so important, we all know how the best results are achieved through teamwork and without our very complex social structure and language so many things would have been out of reach.

Our ancestors used to be herbivorous, they only changed because of the strong competition they faced. A few million years ago the environment in Africa changed, forests turning to grassland, and most of the hominids original food sources were taken away. Thus an extra food source, meat, was needed to survive. Had we not made this change, we would have become extinct there and then.

Basically our evolution relied upon meat.

Edit: @ tollerx2. Albert Einstein was indeed a very clever bloke, I fail to see how his being a vegetarian affects the way we evolved though.

@ DarrenB. Firstly, a large proportion of our brains are unused, yet we still use more than other, smaller brained, animals. Standing upright was not to cool down our already reasonably large brains; it reduced the sun on most of our bodies, but the heads remained exposed. Still, said brains were smaller than those we possess now, and I'm not sure what this has to do with anything.
-Your theory of fish does not work when you consider most hominids would not have been in a position where they would have been able to use fish as a main source of food. I doubt they would have really been able to catch any anyway until they developed their tools, which was a development prompted by hunting.
-Painting on cave walls has nothing to do with this, creativity was a symptom of increased intelligence, but paining on cave walls had no effect on this. Yes, creativity is what sets us apart, but it is a symptom rather than a cause. That it was done with vegetal pigments is irrelevant, no usable dyes can be got from meat.
It is to be noted that early farmers also relied on meat for nutrition and food in winter when there were no edible plants around. Civilisation was greatly helped by a transition to agriculture, but that only happened in the last few 10 thousand years, and isn't really a factor of evolution.
-Humans are an aggressive species, being veggie will never change this. Even if everyone led a perfectly healthy vegan diet, do you think a humans affinity for war would disappear? The implication here is that eating meat somehow makes people violent; that the act of eating it changes their personality. I rather think it is because of their personality they eat meat; the final point is not very good.

Answer 2

Yes we wouldnt have evolved if our ancestors were vegetarians but they didnt have much a choice we do now so be vegetarians as we can live without eating non-veg

Answer 3

Andy B. Maybe you should do alittle more research...Albert Einstein was a vegetarian and I doubt that his brain development was effected negatively by it. He believed that "nothing would benefit humankind and the environment like changing to a vegetarian diet".

Answer 4

andy b, i think you've got your wires crossed alittle here & are pushing conjecture abit. our big brains are still supposedly unused to a capacity of around 70%. it was this heat in africa that you refer which caused us to walk upright in a response to cool down a larger brain already in existence. at a push, i would agree that fishing probably helped brain development though because of high ammounts of essential omega oils they contain (however, these are also contained in pulses & seeds eg; pumpkin). from a sociological point of view there is probably a lot of truth but not biological necessity. for example recent observations of anomolous chimps in the wild collaborating to catch smaller monkeys & eating them. some commentators are sure this is the genesis of human behaviour in action. but if you look at other immportant developments in early man however, the birth of culture/art is what really set us apart from the animal kingdom...& painting on cave walls was possible by seeking/obtaining/experimenting with vegetal pigments. i think the other person who posted here, who mentioned moving beyond hunter/gatherer to farmer/grain storer; &'becoming more civilised' is a little closer to the bone (pardon the pun) if you ask me. tragicaly if you take the no meat= no society view to its conclusion, in terms of sheer aggression, historians comment on the necessity of war in central america to build the indigenous societies to the level they achieved. in this conundrum lies the true symptom of the human condition...i reckon its a safe bet that there will never be world peace while humans eat meat when its not necessary...(did einstein say this?) . well the great hindu temples of india where built by a vegetarian society though so who knows.

Answer 5

some do and performance left Bible reality. Jesus believed in advent AND nonetheless DOES: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Marriage is a sacred bond. even as requested if divorce change into permissible, Jesus stated: “Did you no longer examine that he who created them from the start made them male and lady and stated, ‘for this reason a guy will depart his father and his mom and could stick with his spouse, and both will be one flesh’? so as that they at the prompt are not 2, yet one flesh. for this reason, what God has yoked mutually enable no guy positioned aside. . . . Whoever divorces his spouse, except on the floor of fornication, and marries yet another commits adultery.” (Matthew 19:4-6, 9) even as a married couple persist with Jesus’ tips and are honest to one yet another, all interior the kinfolk sense seem after and satisfied.

Answer 6

Depends on whether you believe in evolution however if our ancestors had been vegetarian we would be happier and healthier.

Answer 7

According to history human settled down & start settlement when they learn to cultivate plants & grain. That's advancement; otherwise all of us probably remain primitive as hunter gatherers.

Answer 8

I don't think we would have. Most of our evolution revolved around hunting.

The first tools we developed were for hunting, and for cutting flesh. We ate fish, which gave us Omega 3, which helped develop our brains. Our social structure is based on pack social structure, and hence developed from hunting in packs. We developed language to effectively work in groups to hunt bigger prey.

If it wasn't for eating meat, we would still be in or around the stone age.

Answer 9

no if our ancestors wouldnt have ate meat they would not have evolved in intelligence because meat helped to do this.

Answer 10

Depending on how far back you go..they were "Veggies"