Question

4). How did primitive man learn
which fruits and roots to eat and which were poisonous ?​

Answer 1

The same way you did: from their parents.

If you have children, you might have noticed that there was a small window of time—from maybe one year old until two or three—that they would eat just about anything you put in front of them. Then, suddenly, that stopped—and they would only eat things they had eaten before, and were extremely suspicious of new foods until they were at least ten or twelve, possibly until their late teens.

This is a survival instinct.

When you are born, you don’t know what is edible. You trust your parents to know, and eat everything they tell you to eat. As a toddler, you are constantly watched over and in in the presence of your parents or grandparents, who will quickly snatch anything inedible they see you trying to eat. In this stage, you can learn to eat just about anything, even very spicy and bitter food. (At this stage, your taste buds have a hard time even registering bitter tastes.)

When you get older, you roam wider and it’s impossible to watch over you every second. This is when you stop putting everything in your mouth, and you only eat things you’ve eaten before. You become your own watcher, and don’t eat unknown things in case they’re poisonous. In this stage, your taste buds react intensely to bitter tastes.

When you’re older still, you will start learning from your peers again. This time it’s more conscious: you observe what others eat and conclude it’s safe. Your taste buds are also changing, and you will start to appreciate more bitter tastes. (Hardly anyone likes beer at 15: it’s way too bitter. When you’re 20, your taste buds have changed and it tastes better.)

This is, in all likelihood, exactly what we have been doing since our ancestors became omnivores, several million years ago. Herbivores and carnivores have it easier: they can hard-wire their taste buds to like exactly the narrow range of things they need. Omnivores need to learn, so we have evolved a learning strategy.

Explanation: