ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how natural selection has contributed to the formation of human foodways. It applies the principles of human behavioral ecology (HBE) to a number of foodways, such as why humans everywhere have a strong liking for meat and sweet foods, why most humans don't eat dogs and cats, why Hindus ban eating the cow, and why both Jews and Muslims abhor the pig. The chapter considers foraging strategies, examining how people arrive at decisions concerning the combination of plants and animals that they make fundamental to their diet. It shows why only a minority of the world's peoples drink milk and how the capacity to digest milk evolved by natural selection in conjunction with the cultural evolution of dairying. HBE is a close cousin of both sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, but it focuses on behavioral variations and how these are shaped by ecological circumstances. Lactose consumption and digestion was a major cultural adaptation to a biological need.
