We can talk about this more in class tomorrow, but Tanner is right – “race” as we use it today (and for the last few hundred years) is a social construct not a biological given. When talking about humans (homo-sapiens) and Neanderthals, we are in that grey area of defining species (a scientific category) – and that definition is debated as well (with inter-breeding being one of the contested areas).

I love the “depth” of the first paragraph! You are so wise to remind us that our current view of how omnipotent, powerful, and entitled we are is, after all, a specific kind of historical construction. As Dunn notes, in terms of our evolutionary past, we were prey long before and for a lot longer than we’ve been predators or agriculturalists.
And yes, on Diamonds’ glaring omission of dogs – the oldest domesticate and certainly one of the most interesting. I’m looking forward to your future posts about them!

This is an interesting question. My sense is that because meat eating is so central to American culture we exaggerate its importance in human diets globally. There are societies that are even more dependent on meat protein than we are (the Penan in Borneo and various reindeer herding groups come to mind), but in many other cuisines meat makes an occasional appearance and is rarely featured as a main course. I know people who feel they need to eat meat to stay healthy (and there’s a whole debate about the paleo diet and old blood types that supports this perspective), but there’s lots of research to suggest that people live longer and are generally more healthy if they follow Michael Collin’s advice to eat a wide variety of whole foods, mostly plants.
The whole issue of omnivory is intriguing as well — I’m thinking about the research from a couple of weeks ago that links the ability to digest cereal grains to the domestication of the dog — and remembering that most domesticated species are herbivores. Wolves, of course, are predators, and cats are also obligate carnivores….