Hunting in Human Evolution

The way hunters and huntresses have managed to survive over time is in part due to the history of hunting as a fundamental element of the human diet, but also due to the techniques and methods of hunting that have fostered social relationships. One of the most important aspects of our evolution has been how the different species of our genus have managed to survive. Food lies at the foundation of all relationships within the biotic world. Therefore, knowing and understanding food gives us the fundamental keys to human evolution. Without understanding the importance of food intake and how food is obtained, it is difficult to understand what it means to be human. This book, coordinated by renowned specialists Antoni Canals-Salomó and Eudald Carbonell, delves into the most relevant aspects related to hunting in the development of our species, from prehistory to the present day: hunting species, the evolution of the hunting brain, hunting as an economic strategy and social structure, hunting methods and techniques in the Pleistocene, the hunting of large herbivores and medium- and small-sized animals, hunting in the Holocene, cannibalism, hunting as a symbolic universe, hunting from a gender perspective, and finally, the hunting practices of today and the figure of the 21st-century hunter.