Re: Salt and Neandertals (Re: Sodium homeostasis... was Re: tears

H. M. Hubey (hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu)
4 Nov 1995 00:47:55 -0500

rtravsky@UWYO.EDU (Rich Travsky) writes:

>>When did humans/hominids/humanoids start to harvest salt?

>Who says they had to? You're viewing them like modern homo

They obviously did. The question was "when".

>>the caves. So, no bones!
>How do, say, eskimos and other northern peoples handle it?

Read carefully. In cold lands they use the cold. I already
said so.

>How do peoples in warmer climes handle long term food storage?

Salt. I was asking when.

>find it wasn't a problem after all.

It was a problem; a thing called goiter. At one time
salt was about as expensive as gold almost in China.

>Do eskimos hunt in the winter? What's wrong wth hunting
>in the winter? Are we supposed to imageine them just sitting
>around chewing jerky, waiting for spring?

Did the Neandertals live like Eskimos? Are we sure of this?

Did they have the same technology 300,000 years ago? 700,000
years ago? Maybe they did, but how would we know? And if they
did, there's no point to thinking of them as half-humans
is there?

>Why do you insist on their having to have fires going all the
>time? Northern peoples do fine without a lot of wood sources.

Yes. I guess now the Neandertals 700,000 years ago had
well developed clothing industry like the Eskimos.
Maybe they did.

-- 





				Regards, Mark

				http://www.smns.montclair.edu/~hubey