Patterns of food consumption, health and demography among hunter-gatherers, past and present – the last 10,000 years

Prof. Marek Zvelebil

How do patterns of food production and food consumption among hunter-gatherers affect their health, lifestyle and reproduction? Does frequent movement and low residential densities favour or inhibit the spread of disease? To what extent did contact with farming communities influence susceptibility to disease? How far had our hunter-gatherer past shaped our genetic makeup and our health today? These are significant questions and the answers could increase our understanding of part and present hunter-gatherer health and biology, as well as our own contemporary conditions of health and disease. An extended historical perspective is needed in order to interpret differential patterns of food production and food consumption in hunter-gatherer societies.

Recent publications

• 2000 Fat is a Feminist Issue. On Ideology, diet and health in hunter-gatherer societies. In L. Hurcombe and M. Donald (eds.), Gender and Material Culture. MacMillan Press, London, 209–221