The lives of our earliest hominin ancestors are often shrouded in mystery, but recent research on the consumption of windfallen fruit may shed light on one of humanity's oldest and most savored activities: sharing a good meal (and a tipple) with kith and kin.
In a "Notes from the Field" article in the journal BioScience, Nathaniel Dominy (Dartmouth College), Catherine Hobaiter (University of St Andrews), and colleagues coin a new term for gathering and eating fallen fruit: scrumping. The term calls to mind scrumpy, a rustic unfiltered cider popular in the West Country of England. And just as pub patrons may find themselves less nimble-footed after a few, so too might hominins feasting on fallen fruit. Such fruits, particularly those with robust outer layers, often undergo ethanol fermentation, creating a victual with an extra kick.
The authors describe a single amino acid mutation in the DNA of the last common ancestor of African apes that allowed them—and later us—to efficiently burn calories from alcohol, a handy evolutionary trick inaccessible to the arboreal monkeys with whom they competed for a meal. The immediate implication, say the authors, is that this adaptation allowed apes to engage in scrumping, gorging themselves on overripe fruits that hold little appeal for their competitors overhead. Although this may initially seem like a modest behavioral shift, the authors consider it a potentially "signal moment in the history of life on Earth," fueling "the Neolithic Revolution and everything that followed."
The authors note the sociality fostered by scrumping, linking it to contemporary human habits, in which "co-consumption of alcohol is often integral to feasting and sacred rituals, events that produce and reinforce community identity and cohesion." Following from that, they wonder, "Is it possible to trace the roots of these human foodways to social scrumping of fermented fruits in the rainforests of Africa?" More research is in order, they say, as important questions still remain—questions that are perhaps best considered over a hearty meal with friends, with a delectable beverage close at hand.
