Entomophagy and Evolution: Eating Insects Past, Present,

and Future

Julie LesnikWayne State University

Detroit, MI

entomoanthro.org

entomophagy anthropology

Jongema, 2012

2,040 recorded edible insects in the world

Why are

bugs not

common

cuisine in the

US and Europe

?entomoanthro.org

©Little Herds

©Little Herds

©Little Herds

©Little Herds

Food and Agriculture Organization recommendations

• Further documentation of nutritional values

• Investigate environmental sustainability

• Clarify socio-economic benefits

• Develop legal framework for production and trade

The need for anthropology• Food is a major topic in anthropology

• Anthropologists look to understand why people choose to eat, or not eat, certain foods

• These reasons are vast

Biological Anthropology

“Last common ancestor” A great ape, likely ate insects similar to the great apes today

(Social insects – ants, termites, honey)

Genus Australopithecus

Upright walking apes. Likely also the same as extant apes, and we have some archaeological evidence that suggests

this as well

Homo erectus

Origins of foraging/division of labor as we understand it today.Insects likely important to them as they are to foragers today.

NeanderthalsOccupying Europe during the last Ice Age.

Biodiversity is low, insects likely not part of their diets.

“Modern Humans”Intensive agriculture works against entomophagy.

Rely on “fruits of labor” even to nutritional detriment.

Brain size Brain Size

Diet Quality and Brain Size

Fish and Lockwood, 2003

Dietary Quality and Human Evolution

• We know brain size expands over the course of human evolution

• We know that there is a positive relationship between dietary quality and brain size

• Humans must have increased dietary quality over the course of their evolution

Early hominids

• Ape-like early ancestors and australopithecines

Species Caste Preferred By Crude Protein

(%)

Crude Fat(%)

Fe (mg/100g)

M. muelleri** Soldiers Chimps 72 5 10

C. heghi** Workers Gorillas 15 13 2962

M. falciger* Alates Humans 21 22 _

* Phelps et al 1975**Debalauwe and Janssens, 2008

Termite Preferences and Nutrition

Frugivorous chimpanzees receive plenty of

micronutrients, but protein requirements are more difficult

to meet

Folivorous gorillas receive plenty of protein from leaves,

but micronutrient requirements are more

difficult to meetPhotos: Abigail Lubliner & Rob Kroenert

Great ape termite preferences reflect their diets

• Au. robustus has the largest brain size for the genus Australopithecus

• Increase in diet quality

• Eating more insects or insects with greater nutritional value - fatty reproductive termites, for instance - would aid in this brain size shift

Australopithecus robustus

SwartkransAbout 1.7 mya

3 cm

Photos: Backwell & d’Errico, 2001

Pattern and width of the striations on

the Swartkrans bone tools match

that of tools used to experimentally

excavate termite mounds

Genus Homo

• Homo erectus is when we start seeing brain and body size as well as behavior that are clearly “human”

Ethnographic examples• In attempting to reconstruct the

evolutionary significance of insects as food, populations living at the subsistence level are of most interest

The San

• When foraging, women may stop and eat termites all day (Nonaka, 1996)

Photo:PhotographersDirect

• Women average 15 minutes a day in search of various insect larvae

• They will take them whenever encountered (Hawkes et al., 1982)

Photo:F1 Online Photos

The Aché

The Arrernte

• Women, accompanied by their children, carry digging sticks and go out in search of small fauna, including social insects that are available year-round (Bodenheimer, 1951)

Photo:Spencer and Gillan, 1899

Sexual division of labor

• Women’s protein requirements increase by 50% when pregnant and lactating

• Insects may provide a reliable source of this nutrient they can obtain even when accompanied by small children

• This pattern of behavior could be expected for our early ancestors as well

Jongema, 2012

SanAché Arrernte

Jongema, 2012

SanAché Arrernte

Tropic of Cancer

Tropic of Capricorn

Clinal variation: Change in frequency over geographic space

Clinal variation: Change in frequency over geographic space

Jongema, 2012

Tropic of Cancer

Tropic of Capricorn

Tropic of Cancer in China• Passes through the Yunnan

province

Beijing• Most of the

insect eating in China occurs here

Homo erectusFirst hominid to leave Africa

2.5 million years ago: Plio-Pleistocene border

• Time of great climatic variability, trending colder

• Many species of mammals went extinct at this time

• The origins of our genus, Homo, coincides with the time– Intelligence and adaptability

Homo erectus• Homo erectus appears around 1.8 mya in

Africa and quickly disperses, likely following the coast line and keeping in temperate zones

Neanderthals• Successfully lived

in the coldest climates from ~200k to 38k ya

• Utilized caves, fire, and likely clothing

Pleistocene• 2.5 million to 11,700 years ago

Meat-based diets in modern foragers

Biodiversity

Latitudinal Diversity Gradient• Widely recognized phenomenon in

ecology that there tends to be an increase in species richness moving towards the tropics

• No single explanation. Possible combination of increased energy availability and environmental stability

Latitudinal Diversity Gradient• Gradient displayed for terrestrial mammals.• Insects?

• From: Mannion et al. (2014), based on work by Clinton Jenkins.

Termite Diversity• Worldwide there are over 280 genera

• There are 85 genera in the Afrotropics alone (~1/3)

• 11 of these are known to be used as food

• In areas with less diversity, there are less food options

Europe and North America?

Europe under ice until 18,000 ya

Europe• In glaciated Europe, hunting would have been

primary subsistence

• Not long after the end of the Pleistocene, cattle domestication occurs (about 10kya)

• With animal resources well-represented in the diet, and insects being less plentiful at northern latitudes, entomophagy is not likely

Peopling of the Americas• The first people here had to survive

crossing Beringia

Peopling of the Americas• The earliest people to arrive to the New

World likely did not eat insects

• As people migrated further and settled in and around tropic zones, insect eating may have been essential

Agriculture

Agriculture• Agriculture allows for population sizes

to increase, especially in areas that cannot support many people– Islands– High altitude– Arid regions

Entomophagy lost• It is well reported that with the origins of

agriculture, nutritional health decreases

• It appears that when energy is put towards agricultural intensification, less energy is put towards foraging, which reduces dietary variability

• Where insect foraging is the easiest – the tropics – we see entomophagy persisting

Global patterns of entomophagy

• I believe that the lack of entomophagy in the northern latitudes is related to long term occupation in these climates where biodiversity is significantly less than in the tropics

• Forest resources are not as available and efforts go to more intensive cultivation

Applications• The anthropological perspective

• Shift away from the idea of “taboo” and think of it more as circumstance of geography and history.

• Raw fish was not “taboo” in NA/EU, it was just not something we did..

May 26-28, 2016

eatinginsectsdetroit.org

entomoanthro.org