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Abstract

In a recent study, Hardy et al . (2012) identified compounds from two non-nutritional plants, yarrow and camomile, in a sample of Neanderthal dental calculus from the northern Spanish site of El Sidrón. Both these plants are bitter tasting and have little nutritional value but are well known for their medicinal qualities. Bitter taste can signal poison. We know that the bitter taste perception gene TAS2R38 was present among the Neanderthals of El Sidrón (Lalueza-Fox et al. 2009), and their selection of yarrow and camomile was hence probably deliberate. With few nutritional benefits, reasons must be sought for why the Neanderthals collected and ingested these plants. They could have consumed them as flavouring, but this presupposes a degree of complexity in cuisine for which there is little evidence. The widespread evidence for animal self-medication, or zoopharmacognosy, however, offers an attractive behavioural context.We propose, indeed, that these plants were selected and ingested deliberately for the purpose of self-medication.Here, we investigate the implications of this new finding for Neanderthal knowledge of plants and we offer a context for plant knowledge and self-medication among early human and hominin populations.
Debate
Neanderthal self-medication in context
Karen Hardy1, Stephen Buckley2& Michael Huffman3
Introduction
In a recent study, Hardy et al. (2012) identified compounds from two non-nutritional
plants, yarrow and camomile, in a sample of Neanderthal dental calculus from the northern
Spanish site of El Sidr´
on. Both these plants are bitter tasting and have little nutritional
value but are well known for their medicinal qualities. Bitter taste can signal poison. We
know that the bitter taste perception gene TAS2R38 was present among the Neanderthals
of El Sidr´
on (Lalueza-Fox et al. 2009), and their selection of yarrow and camomile was
hence probably deliberate. With few nutritional benefits, reasons must be sought for why
the Neanderthals collected and ingested these plants. They could have consumed them
as flavouring, but this presupposes a degree of complexity in cuisine for which there is
little evidence. The widespread evidence for animal self-medication, or zoopharmacognosy,
however, offers an attractive behavioural context. We propose, indeed, that these plants were
selected and ingested deliberately for the purpose of self-medication. Here, we investigate the
implications of this new finding for Neanderthal knowledge of plants and we offer a context
for plant knowledge and self-medication among early human and hominin populations.
Plant remains rarely survive at early prehistoric sites and for many years absence of
evidence was largely understood to mean evidence of absence. The lack of evidence for
plants, together with the large numbers of animal bones found on many sites (Burke 2000),
led to a perspective on Neanderthal diet that was dominated by meat. This appeared to
be consolidated by stable isotope analyses since the δ15N values were consistent with a
meat-rich diet (Bocherens 2009; Richards & Trinkaus 2009). The potential contribution of
plant foods has not, however, been investigated in stable isotope analyses of Neanderthal diet
(Trinkaus in Barras 2012). Furthermore, although this method is widely used as a primary
indicator of diet, a proportion of the diet can consist of plants without being visible in
the stable isotope signal (Jones 2009). A new perspective on Neanderthal diet is offered by
the increasing numbers of plant remains recovered from sites and by the development of
microscopic and biomolecular techniques which are revealing new evidence for plant foods.
We are little further forwards, however, in understanding the extent of plant consumption.
The Neanderthal occupation at El Sidr´
on dates to between 47 300 and 50 600 BP (Wood
et al. 2013). This places it in a relatively mild climatic period (Van Andel 2003) and most
probably a deciduous forested environment (Huntley & Allen 2003). In addition to yarrow
and camomile, the dental calculus study identified an oil shale or bitumen source, a range
of different carbohydrates, evidence for cooking, what may have been green vegetables and
1ICREA, Department of Prehistory, Universitat Aut`
onoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
(Email: khardy@icrea.cat)
2BioArch, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK (Email: sb55@york.ac.uk)
3Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi 484, Japan (Email: huffman@pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp)
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ANTIQUITY 87 (2013): 873–878 http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/087/ant0870873.htm
873
Neanderthal self-medication in context
nuts, and inhalation of wood smoke or smoked food, but no evidence for meat ingestion
despite evidence for collagen survival (Hardy et al. 2012).
Yarrow is a flowering plant in the Asteraceae family, common across temperate regions.
It was used as a vegetable in the Middle Ages, notably as a component of soup, but has
an extended history of medicinal use, in particular as an astringent (Chandler et al. 1982).
Camomile tea is well-known today as an aid for stomach complaints and nervousness,
though there is little record of it as a food. Bioactive constituents are linked to antimicrobial
and anti-inflammatory properties (McKay & Blumberg 2006), while its ability to assist with
general anxiety disorder has been demonstrated (Jay et al. 2009).
The same qualities that make plants medicinal can also make a plant poisonous and
are caused by plant secondary compounds (PSCs). These are complex chemicals that
are not essential to the life of the plant. The many thousands of PSCs that exist have
numerous roles, among them the production of pigments and flavouring substances which
are used in cooking. PSCs also include many and diverse natural toxins that act as pesticides
and anti-grazing agents (Fraenkel 1959). Bitter taste is linked to certain plant secondary
compounds, and bitterness can warn of toxins. Possession of the bitter taste perception gene
TAS2R38, which permits individuals to taste the bitter compound phenylthiocarbamide
(PTC), suggests a predisposition to plant eating (Miller 2011) because the bitter taste can
prevent ingestion of potentially toxic substances (Kim & Drayna 2004).
Charred edible plant remains have been found on several Neanderthal sites (Jones 2009)
and plant microfossils have been found in samples of Neanderthal dental calculus (Henry
et al. 2011; Hardy et al. 2012). While there is no doubt that Neanderthals ate substantial
amounts of meat (Bocherens 2009), they were not obligate carnivores. This means they had
to consume something other than meat to counter the high levels of nitrogen which are
generated by a high-meat diet (Jones 2009; Hardy 2010).
All animals except obligate carnivores consume plants to a greater or lesser extent and
have mechanisms for avoiding toxic PSCs. Wild herbivores avoid certain foods and have
metabolic mechanisms to break down or excrete toxins (Freeland & Janzen 1974). Among
higher primates, gorillas have enlarged colons which enable higher rates of fermentation
to accommodate a fibrous diet of low quality plant fibres and greater processing of
indigestible plant secondary compounds than smaller bodied apes (Remis et al. 2001;
Leonard et al. 2007). Humans and other higher primates deal with toxins either by
avoidance or through processing. That processing may be conducted in the mouth, for
example through bitter pith chewing or wadging (Huffman & Seifu 1989; Huffman et al.
1993) or geophagy (Mahaney et al. 2005; Klein et al. 2008). Alternative strategies are ‘timely
dextrous unpacking’ including peeling and removal of spines, and ‘ecological intelligence’
(Jones 2009) that allows understanding of when a plant or part of a plant is at its most
edible. Among human populations, food processing is largely conducted using external
mechanisms. When cooking developed is unknown, but control of fire is certain by
300 000–400 000 years ago (Roebroeks & Villa 2011) and possibly significantly earlier
(Carmody & Wrangham 2009), while grinding tools have been recorded at Middle (Van
Peer et al. 2003) and Upper (Aranguren et al. 2007) Palaeolithic sites. Less visible processing
methods such as cleaning, peeling, soaking, drying, leaching, salting and fermenting leave no
trace but are likely to have a long history and are still widely used in food preparation today.
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Debate
Karen Hardy, Stephen Buckley & Michael Huffman
The care that is needed in the selection and ingestion of plants so as to exclude noxious
secondary compounds is essential for survival and requires methods of knowledge transfer.
Observation by infants of their mothers’ feeding behaviour is an early mechanism of
knowledge acquisition (see Huffman & Seifu 1989 for the self-medication context). Socially
influenced copying of conspecifics among adults has also been observed among several
populations of chimpanzees (Huffman & Hirata 2004; Huffman et al. 2010).
In the hominin lineage, the fossil evidence from around 1.8 million years ago indicates a
reduction in gut size linked to important changes in the diet with the emergence of Homo
erectus (Aiello & Wheeler 1995; Snodgrass et al. 2009). This led to greater efficiency in
processing and digesting food but it also reduced the capability to process and expel toxic
PSCs. An increasing sophistication in plant knowledge would have been indispensable from
that stage.
Johns (1990) and Huffman (2001) propose that plant processing techniques thereafter
came to play an increasingly important role. Cooking and other processing methods help
to make food safer, more palatable and more digestible (Carmody & Wrangham 2009;
Jones 2009) as well as reducing the effects of toxic PSCs and tannins. The development of
language may have speeded the flow of information and ideas. This will have resulted in an
increasingly complex knowledge not only of plants but also of their effectiveness in treating
ailments, and the processing and preparation methods that could reduce the effects of toxins
and make plants more digestible (Huffman 2001; Cousins & Huffman 2002).
Self-medication
Animal self-medication or zoopharmacognosy (Rodriguez & Wrangham 1993) is a huge
subject that remains little studied (Engel 2002), but it is clear that most animals from
caterpillars (Singer et al. 2009) to higher primates (Wrangham 1995; Huffman 1997)
practise some degree of self-medication. Parasite expulsion is a primary reason to self-
medicate for many species, but evidence also suggests that a wide range of illnesses could
be treated, given the diversity of bioactivities found in many of the plant items ingested
(Huffman 2001, 2003; Cousins & Huffman 2002; Krief et al. 2006; Masi et al. 2012).
Identifying deliberate self-medication in animals can be challenging since many food
plants also have medicinal qualities and the boundaries between food and medicine can at
times be hazy (Huffman 1997). When they are in their known environment, animals are
able to keep themselves and their offspring in good health by selecting the ‘right’ things to
eat, which may be specifically chosen to address a health problem (Engel 2002).
Neanderthals must also have selected self-medicating plants when they needed them.
They lived in widely fluctuating climatic and environmental regimes with great variability
in plant and animal resources. Berries, roots and nuts are good cold climate sources of plant
food (Nelson 1899; Jones 2009; Hardy 2010); warmer climates will have provided an even
greater availability of edible plant foods. Neanderthals also had the genetic capability for
language (Krause et al. 2007), practised food processing techniques and probably engaged
in conspecific care (Hublin 2009). Their ability to taste, select and use bitter-tasting plants
indicates a sophisticated knowledge which fits into the continuum of acquired, essential
know-how that occurs very widely across the animal kingdom.
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Though all primates (and other animals) have varying levels of enzymes which make us
more or less tolerant of certain toxins, there are plants which are poisonous to all; in order
to survive, hominins needed to know which plants not to eat and how and when to eat
those plants they selected. The use of edible bitter tasting plants by the Neanderthals of El
Sidr´
on suggests their knowledge was sufficiently refined to use plants with confidence even
when their bitter taste warned of potential toxicity. This demonstrates that their knowledge
of plants was at least equal to today’s higher primates; with their additional linguistic and
technological abilities it may have been far more elaborate. Rather than contradicting the
extensive evidence for consumption of meat, the evidence for the use of plants adds a rich
new dimension to our developing knowledge of Neanderthal life. We can never know for
sure why yarrow and camomile were ingested at El Sidr´
on, but we propose that the evidence
for self-medication offers the most convincing behavioural context.
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... Otra actividad de cuidado individual a destacar es la automedicación o el uso de plantas medicinales con objetivos de prevención y curación. Las plantas medicinales, estudiadas en arqueobotánica analizando sedimentos y cálculos dentales (Hardy 2018(Hardy , 2019Hardy et al. 2013Hardy et al. , 2016Weyrich et al. 2017), ofrecen importantes datos para inferir sobre las actividades de cuidado. A través de análisis químicos (Hardy 2018(Hardy , 2019Hardy et al. 2013Hardy et al. , 2016 se identifican una serie de compuestos secundarios de las plantas (Plant Secondary Com-pounds, PSC). ...
... Las plantas medicinales, estudiadas en arqueobotánica analizando sedimentos y cálculos dentales (Hardy 2018(Hardy , 2019Hardy et al. 2013Hardy et al. , 2016Weyrich et al. 2017), ofrecen importantes datos para inferir sobre las actividades de cuidado. A través de análisis químicos (Hardy 2018(Hardy , 2019Hardy et al. 2013Hardy et al. , 2016 se identifican una serie de compuestos secundarios de las plantas (Plant Secondary Com-pounds, PSC). Los PSC son sustancias químicas complejas responsables de la defensa de la planta y que tienen muchas funciones para los humanos, proporcionan aroma, pigmentos y sabor, y son la fuente de las propiedades venenosas, psicoactivas, alucinógenas y medicinales en las plantas, base de las medicinas tradicionales y modernas (Hardy 2018: 397). ...
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Desde el siglo XX, se estudian las patologías neandertales mediante el análisis de sus huesos. Sin embargo, el cuidado de la salud en poblaciones del Paleolítico medio, y sus implicaciones, no han sido estudiadas hasta muy recientemente. En la última década algunos autores comenzaron a considerar este tema para una mejor comprensión de las sociedades paleolíticas a partir de la bioarqueología del cuidado. Este trabajo es la primera síntesis crítica de los datos sobre neandertales. El conjunto estudiado incluye 16 yacimientos en Europa y Asia. Permite discutir los comportamientos sanitarios y sus implicaciones a nivel individual, poblacional y social. Nuestro estudio muestra que los comportamientos asistenciales se atestiguaban sistemáticamente en estas poblaciones y permite discutir aspectos técnicos y sociales e inferir capacidades cognitivas y emocionales. Esta investigación tiene una importante implicación social y contribuye a la creación de un vínculo directo entre el Paleolítico medio y los aspectos sociales de la atención sanitaria que todos hemos experimentado en los últimos años, debido al COVID-19, poniendo la Arqueología del Paleolítico en el centro de una reflexión sobre “qué nos hace humanos” y destacando su papel para proponer temas que tienen repercusión en los debates más actuales en nuestro mundo contemporáneo.
... Modified starch granules in dental calculus have been linked to food preparationHenry et al. 2011;King et al. 2017; Oxilia et al. 2021), however, depositional and post-depositional processes have been shown to replicate similar damage patterns (Collins and Copeland 2011;. Plant microparticles(Fiorin et al. 2018) and chemical compoundsHardy et al. , 2013 attributable to plants of known medicinal value have also been recovered from dental calculus, though the suggestion of self-medication amongst Neanderthals based on the presence of camomile and yarrow(Hardy et al. , 2013(Hardy et al. , 2016b has been challenged(Buck and Stringer 2014; Krief et al. 2015).Despite the utility of archaeological dental calculus as a reservoir of dietary and biogeographical information, stochastic microparticle signatures limit dietary reconstructions Power et al. 2015b). A recently published in vitro oral biofilm study indicated limited starch retention (0.06-0.16%) and an underrepresentation of larger starch granules (>20 µm) within mineralised matrices. ...
... Modified starch granules in dental calculus have been linked to food preparationHenry et al. 2011;King et al. 2017; Oxilia et al. 2021), however, depositional and post-depositional processes have been shown to replicate similar damage patterns (Collins and Copeland 2011;. Plant microparticles(Fiorin et al. 2018) and chemical compoundsHardy et al. , 2013 attributable to plants of known medicinal value have also been recovered from dental calculus, though the suggestion of self-medication amongst Neanderthals based on the presence of camomile and yarrow(Hardy et al. , 2013(Hardy et al. , 2016b has been challenged(Buck and Stringer 2014; Krief et al. 2015).Despite the utility of archaeological dental calculus as a reservoir of dietary and biogeographical information, stochastic microparticle signatures limit dietary reconstructions Power et al. 2015b). A recently published in vitro oral biofilm study indicated limited starch retention (0.06-0.16%) and an underrepresentation of larger starch granules (>20 µm) within mineralised matrices. ...
... 1 Among them, we take as an example the Neanderthals, a species belonging to the Hominidae family and an ancestor to modern humans, who consumed and ingested plants such as yarrow and chamomile, which have little nutritional value and a bitter taste, but have various medicinal properties, the first as an astringent and the second as an anxiolytic, in addition to its antiinflammatory properties. 3 The deliberate consumption of these bitter plants, usually avoided due to their potential danger, is considered as evidence of SM in this ancestor species. 3 This adaptive behavior was conserved throughout the evolution of the species, as demonstrated by the finding of a fungus (Fomitopsis betulina) with purgative and antibiotic properties within the belongings of the 'ice man', a specimen of homo sapiens mummified around the year 3300 BC who was infested with Trichuris trichiura; it is thought that man used the aforementioned fungus for the purpose of alleviating the illness. ...
... 3 The deliberate consumption of these bitter plants, usually avoided due to their potential danger, is considered as evidence of SM in this ancestor species. 3 This adaptive behavior was conserved throughout the evolution of the species, as demonstrated by the finding of a fungus (Fomitopsis betulina) with purgative and antibiotic properties within the belongings of the 'ice man', a specimen of homo sapiens mummified around the year 3300 BC who was infested with Trichuris trichiura; it is thought that man used the aforementioned fungus for the purpose of alleviating the illness. 4 Therefore, it is possible to understand SM as a self-care behavior 5 that also functioned as the first origin of health care, which was passed from generation to generation. ...
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Self-medication (SM) is a global and growing phenomenon. It represents a public health problem due to antibiotic resistance, risk of adverse drug reactions, drug–drug interactions, disease masking, and increased morbidity. There is not a consensus on the definition of SM. The definitions found in different studies make it difficult to address this problem from a theoretical perspective and therefore find an adequate solution to this public health problem. The aim of this article is to search the medical literature to characterize the current understanding of SM in the medical community. We conducted a scoping review of definitions of SM by searching on PubMed – Medline, Embase, and LILACS using the following combination of keywords: ‘self-prescription’ or ‘self prescription’, ‘self-medication’ or ‘self medication’, or ‘automedication’ and ‘definition’ or ‘explanation’. The search was limited to articles containing the definition of SM, with no limit on language or year. Duplicate studies and those that did not mention the definition of SM were excluded from the final review. A total of 65 studies were included in the final selection. We found a vast heterogeneity in the definition of SM. Most articles based their definition of SM on the process of obtaining the drug, the nonparticipation of a specific health professional, the source of the medication, and the reason for SM. Other interesting concepts such as self-care, nonadherence to a prescription, reuse of stored drugs, and sharing and lending medicines were also considered forms of SM by other authors, however. This study highlights the need to reach a consensus regarding the definition of SM to adequately propose strategies to address this global health problem. This study shows the diverse concepts that need to be included in a future definition of SM. Plain Language Summary Definition of self-medication: a review with systematic methodology Self-medication (SM) is a global and growing phenomenon that represents a public health problem due to antibiotic resistance, risk of dangerous side effects, interactions between drugs, and disease masking. Currently, there is not a consensus on the definition of SM, which makes it difficult to address this problem and therefore find an adequate solution. Making a standard definition would allow the development of programs focused on addressing drug-related problems associated with self-medication behavior. The purpose of this article is to search the medical literature to define the current understanding of SM in the medical community. We included a total of 65 studies and found a great variance in the definition of SM. Most articles based their definition of SM on the process of obtaining the drug, the nonparticipation of a specific health professional, the source of the medication, and the reason for SM. Other interesting concepts such as self-care, not following a prescription, reuse of stored drugs, and sharing and lending medicines were also considered forms of SM by other authors, however. Furthermore, this study highlights that SM is a wider concept that goes beyond aiming to promote and restore health, as aesthetic and recreational purposes are also reasons for SM that can put individuals at risk and compromise the correct and safe use of medications.
... Both hunted the megafauna; both could also hunt smaller prey (Hardy et al. 2013a) such as rabbits (Pelletier et al. 2019). Both used plants, including tubers (underground storage organs and both also knew about medicinal plants (Hardy et al. 2013b). Changes may have been more subtle -for example, in the diet of mothers, babies and children; better cooking methods; better methods of food storage for winter; and a higher vitamin intake. ...
... Numerous research efforts have underscored organoleptic characteristics, encompassing taste, as pivotal criteria for the selection of resources due to their possible correlation with the medicinal use of plants (Ankli et al. 1999, Dragos et al. 2022, Gilca & Barbulescu 2015. This notion becomes increasingly fascinating when pondering the fact that our archaic relatives, the Neanderthals, possessed the ability to discern the organoleptic qualities of flora (Hardy et al. 2013). ...
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Background: In numerous cultures, taste plays a pivotal role in the selection of medicinal plants by humans. We investigated whether the bitter taste of plants, as perceived by people, influenced the selection of medicinal plants for treating specific ailments.Method: Using the free-listing technique, we documented local knowledge about medicinal plants across five communities within Catimbau National Park, Pernambuco, Brazil. Participants who were older than 18 years and consented to participate in the study shared insights about medicinal plants, therapeutic targets, and taste attributes. The relationship between a plant's taste and the body systems for which it is recommended was analyzedusing the chi-square test.Results: A bitter taste was associated with treating specific diseases; addressing ailments of the digestive, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and urogenital systems; infectious and parasitic diseases; and injuries as well asgeneral symptoms and signs. Among the taste attributes reported, bitterness was the most common trait (42.34%), followed by astringent (26.78%), sweet (8.04%), sour (1.84%), and other/not classified (21.24%).Conclusion: In our study, we discovered that bitter taste is intricately linked to the selection of medicinal plants for treating certain ailments. Our findings underscore the significance of bitterness as a crucial factor in identifying plants for disease treatment in the region.
... Depending on the type of fracture and the severity of the break, individuals can take measures to promote healing by crafting a sling or splint and reducing activity to allow time for healing. The practice of caring for oneself is common today, and evolutionary approaches suggest self-care may even pre-date anatomically modern humans who evolved over 150,000 years ago (Hardy et al., 2013). ...
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This book aims to encourage more co-produced research by scholars working in evolutionary medicine (EM) and palaeopathology that addresses questions about human health, past and present. It highlights future research that may promote that collaboration between palaeopathology and EM. This chapter begins with the premise that EM and palaeopathology have clear synergies in that they take a deep time perspective as they explore health in the past and in the present. It introduces the volume and first provides a background to EM from its first appearance in the early 1990s, including discussions about ultimate and proximate explanations for disease. It then highlights that the field of palaeopathology was initially established much earlier than EM and argues that practitioners before the 1990s, often physicians, were simply not exposed to evolutionary theory in relation to the diseases they were seeing both in the living and in the dead. However, the stage now looks set for more productive collaborations. A thematic overview of the volume and its individual chapters follows within the framework of the suggested categories for study within EM (Williams and Nesse, 1990). The chapter finishes with some discussion about the One Health Initiative, EM and palaeopathology, an initiative that is considered an essential area of study now and for the future.
... Depending on the type of fracture and the severity of the break, individuals can take measures to promote healing by crafting a sling or splint and reducing activity to allow time for healing. The practice of caring for oneself is common today, and evolutionary approaches suggest self-care may even pre-date anatomically modern humans who evolved over 150,000 years ago (Hardy et al., 2013). ...
Chapter
Traumatic injuries and the physical impairments potentially associated with them can have debilitating or lethal consequences that can affect not only the health of the individual but also the population as a whole. Thus, the analysis of trauma is a common part of palaeopathological reconstructions of the lived experience in the past. A nuanced approach to trauma analysis informs this reconstruction by differentiating between traumatic injury secondary to underlying pathological conditions (e.g. osteoarthritis), trauma related to activity, including that related to occupation, and trauma resulting from interpersonal aggression. With regard to the latter, palaeopathological reconstructions of violence can add to current understandings of the use and patterns of violence within societies today and in the past. This temporal view is integral to an evolutionary medicine perspective, through examining how differential exposure to trauma has shaped humans biologically and culturally through time. Before reconstructions of traumatic patterns can be attempted, a base level of knowledge is required to identify morphological changes to bone and how these alterations differ from taphonomic damage or other pathological changes. This chapter sets out criteria for recording trauma in human skeletal remains and provides examples of how we use trauma to interpret patterns of injuries within the frameworks of bioarchaeology and evolutionary medicine, both accidental and violence-related.
... Our ancestors likely ingested psychedelic mushrooms from the genus Psilocybe since the Pliocene (beginning 5.3 million years ago [mya]), when semi-arboreal hominins intensified foraging activity on the ground [3]. There is evidence of self-medication among the primates and Paleolithic humans [4]. Psychedelic substances hugely influenced certain cultures and religions dating back to 4000 BC [5]. ...
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Psychedelics are hallucinogenic drugs that alter the state of consciousness substantially. They bring about psychological, auditory, and visual changes. The psychedelics act on the brain, implying that they have a powerful psychological impact. One of the main factors contributing to disability worldwide is pain. The majority of people deal with pain on a daily basis. Living with chronic pain affects daily life and has social implications. Chronic pain can be associated with any disease that may be genetic, idiopathic, or traumatic. The standard management of pain is done with pharmacological intervention and physical therapy. However, with time, patients may become resistant to a particular class of drugs. As these drugs do not help in treating the cause of pain, they act by blocking receptors and suppressing nervous systems, as this pharmacological intervention is not a permanent solution for pain management. Long-term use of the pharmacological intervention, which acts by suppressing the nervous system, may develop other side effects on the body. These standard therapies are not as effective in managing pain. The opioid class of drugs has good pain-relieving properties but causes addiction; it needs therapeutic drug monitoring to monitor that it is not abused. Since the first synthetic psychedelic was developed, until today, we have had a fair chance to understand its effects and side effects. These drugs are very potent and effective. They have shown promising developments in the field of clinical psychology. There is upcoming research on psychedelics' use in treating pain disorders. In this article, let us understand the effect of psychedelic drugs on the brain and body and how they modulate pain. Even today, the precise mechanism of chronic pain is still not understood completely. Psychedelics' application and uses in future medicine and pain management are being studied. Understanding psychedelics' effects on the brain and how they function allows us to link how they might be used to treat chronic pain.
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In this book, Jennifer French presents a new synthesis of the archaeological, palaeoanthropological, and palaeogenetic records of the European Palaeolithic, adopting a unique demographic perspective on these first two-million years of European prehistory. Unlike prevailing narratives of demographic stasis, she emphasises the dynamism of Palaeolithic populations of both our evolutionary ancestors and members of our own species across four demographic stages, within a context of substantial Pleistocene climatic changes. Integrating evolutionary theory with a socially oriented approach to the Palaeolithic, French bridges biological and cultural factors, with a focus on women and children as the drivers of population change. She shows how, within the physiological constraints on fertility and mortality, social relationships provide the key to enduring demographic success. Through its demographic focus, French combines a 'big picture' perspective on human evolution with careful analysis of the day-to-day realities of European Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities—their families, their children, and their lives.
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El presente texto busca aportar una visión social y humanística a la cuestión de las enfermedades infecciosas durante la Prehistoria. Pese a que la literatura científica no ha indagado especialmente en la temática de los cuidados humanos por causas diversas, resulta evidente que en lo que respecta a las patologías infecciosas del pasado sí ha sucedido todo lo contrario. No obstante, dada la especial ausencia de restos óseos afectados por este tipo de enfermedades, se propone, en las próximas líneas, aportar una reflexión al respecto de los cuidados y comportamientos sociales que los grupos prehistóricos brindaron a sus semejantes ante el ataque infeccioso de virus, bacterias y parásitos. Precisamente, este tipo de comportamientos sociales son, junto a los simbólicos, una de las mayores incógnitas todavía de la arqueología prehistórica. A partir de dos patologías infecciosas bien reconocidas en las poblaciones del pasado, como son la tuberculosis y la brucelosis, se hará especial referencia al análisis de los comportamientos sociales y cuidados humanos. Se observará que la propagación de dichas enfermedades tiene mucho que ver con la llegada de las innovaciones neolíticas al territorio europeo, suponiendo para diversas de estas afecciones un punto de partida y de persistencia en el tiempo gracias a su prevalencia en el ser humano.
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3 The authors have identified starch grains belonging to wild plants on the surface of a stone from the Gravettian hunter-gatherer campsite of Bilancino (Florence, Italy), dated to around 25 000 bp. The stone can be seen as a grindstone and the starch has been extracted from locally growing edible plants. This evidence can be claimed as implying the making of flour – and presumably some kind of bread – some 15 millennia before the local 'agricultural revolution'.
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The study of self-medication in non-human primates sheds new light on the complex interactions of animal, plant and parasite. A variety of non-nutritional plant secondary compounds and nutrient-poor bark is found in the primate diet, but little is yet known about the possible medicinal consequences of their ingestion. Recent studies of the African great apes support a hypothesis in progress that the non-nutritional ingestion of certain plant species aid in the control of parasite infection and provide relief from related gastrointestinal upsets. Detailed behavioral, pharmacological and parasitological investigations of two such behaviors, bitter pith chewing and leaf swallowing, have been conducted on three East African chimpanzee populations, but they are now known to occur widely among all chimpanzee subspecies, as well as bonobos and lowland gorillas. For both bitter pith chewing and leaf swallowing, selection of the same plant species tends to occur among neighboring groups of same ape species. These local cultural traditions of plant selection may be transmitted when females of the same species transfer into non-natal groups. However, selection of the same plant species or species of related plant genera by two sympatric ape species or between regional populations of great ape subspecies strongly suggests a common criteria of medicinal plant selection. This and the intriguing observa- tion that the same medicinal plant is selected by apes and humans with similar illnesses provide insight into the evolution of medicinal behavior in modern humans and the possible nature of self-medication in early hominids. The occurrence of these and other specific self-medicative behaviors, such as fur rubbing and geophagy, in primates and other animal taxa suggest the existence of an underlying mechanism for the recognition and use of plants and soils with common medicinal or functional properties. Yrbk Phys Anthropol 40:171-200, 1997. r 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
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Contrary to their cold-adapted image, Neanderthals inhabited Pleistocene Europe during a time of great climatic fluctuation with temperatures ranging from as warm as present-day during the last interglacial to as cold as those of the last glacial maximum. Cold-adapted Neanderthals are similarly most often associated with the exploitation of large mammals who are themselves cold-adapted (mammoth, bison, reindeer, etc.). Cold, high-latitude environments are typically seen as lacking in plants generally and in plant foods in particular. Plant foods are therefore usually ignored and Neanderthals are increasingly being viewed as top carnivores who derived the vast majority of their diet from meat. Support for this hypothesis comes largely from stable isotope analysis which tracks only the protein portion of the diet. Diets high in lean meat largely fulfill micronutrient needs but can pose a problem at the macronutrient level. Lean meat can compose no more than 35% of dietary energy before a protein ceiling is reached. Exceeding the protein ceiling can have detrimental physiological effects on the individual. Neanderthals would have needed energy from alternative sources, particularly when animals are fat-depleted and lean meat intake is high. Underground storage organs (USOs) of plants offer one such source, concentrating carbohydrates and energy. USOs could also provide an important seasonal energy source since they are at their maximum energy storage in late fall/winter.Although Paleolithic sites are increasingly yielding plant remains, their presence is rare and they are often given only passing mention in Neanderthal dietary reconstructions. The complexity and number of potential wild plant foods, however, defies easy discussion. Native European wild edible plants with starchy USOs would have been potentially available throughout the Neanderthal range, even during the coldest periods of the Late Pleistocene.
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Large herbivores must select food from a wide variety of plant parts, species, and strains. These differ in nutritional value (protein, carbohydrate, etc.), toughness, spinosity, etc. Even greater differences are found in types and concentrations of secondary compounds. Every plant produces its own set of secondary chemical compounds, which to a great extent are unique to it or its species. Ingestion of natural concentrations of these compounds can lead to either death or severe physiological impairment. The ubiquitous nature of these compounds would make herbivory impossible unless animals had mechanisms for degrading and excreting them. An animal displaying no obvious symptoms of poisoning is not free of the problem of ridding itself of toxic compounds; if it is eating plants, it almost certainly has this problem. Herbivores are capable of detoxifying and eliminating secondary compounds. Limitations of these mechanisms force mammalian herbivores to consume a variety of plant foods at any one time, to tr...
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It has become increasingly apparent, as the 20th century has drawn to a close, that a new paradigm is emerging among faunal analysts investigating animal exploitation strategies during the Middle Palaeolithic period. Whereas the 1980s and 1990s saw the possible existence of hominid hunting during the Middle Palaeolithic heavily debated in the literature (e.g. Binford, 1984; Stiner, 1991, 1994, 1998; contra Chase, 1987, 1988; Klein, 1986, 1987; Patou, 1989; Marean, 1998; Shea, 1998, inter alia), the issue today is not whether Middle Palaeolithic people could hunt, but rather when and how they chose to hunt.
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