10.1: Hominin Dinner Party
- Page ID
- 138544
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Hominin Dinner Party
An artistic reconstruction of Australopithecus africanus by John Gurche.
Supplies Needed
- Food supplies related to the categories below
Readings
- Yoshida-Levine, Bonnie. 2019. Chapter 9: Early Hominins. Explorations.
- Chan, Keith. 2019. Chapter 10: Early Members of the Genus Homo. Explorations.
Introduction
Steps
- Instructors read the introduction (above) and hand out the Student Worksheet.
- Students work individually or in groups to answer the questions.
Conclusion or Review Questions
- As a class, students discuss the questions on the Student Worksheet (below).
Adapting for Online Learning
References
Image Attributions
Hominin Dinner Party Worksheet
- Early Australopiths (Au. anamensis and Au. afarensis) – Dessert. As their diet was largely frugivorous, complemented by nuts and seeds, this group needs to create a dessert made out of fruit and nuts.
- Gracile Australopiths (Au. garhi and Au. africanus)– Vegetables. These species ate a wide variety of foods, including vegetables. This group therefore needs to create a vegetable dish out of the available ingredients.
- Robust Australopiths (Au. robustus and Au. aethiopicus) – Starch. The robusts ate a lot of fruit but also a lot of hard tubers and root vegetables. This group is therefore creating a starchy, carb-heavy dish, much like the modern potato salad.
- Early Homo (H. habilis and H. rudolfensis)– Meat and Marrow. While there is evidence that earlier species also scavenged meat, we are fairly confident the early Homos were comfortable processing and eating meat. This group will therefore butcher an animal and extract marrow from bones.
- For each group: List the kinds of tools they had available or were able to create.
| Species | Main food source | Tools/Materials |
| Early Australopiths | Fruit, nuts, seeds | |
| Gracile Australopiths | Vegetables | |
| Robust Australopiths | Fruit, tubers, root vegetables | |
| Early Homo | Meat, marrow |
- What dish did you make? Write out an approximate recipe including amounts (e.g. two pears) and instructions, including tool use (e.g. using chopper; bash open the coconut).
- What was in the other dishes? Whose dish looked the tastiest and why? Which dish would you prefer to eat as a habiline? Would your preference change if you evolved and were able to cook your food? How would it change?
- How does each species diet relate to their skeletal and morphological features that you’ve learned about?