P. P. Joglekar
Lecturer in Bioarchaeology
Deccan College (Deemed University)
Pune 411 006

Omnivory is an important part of a long process of biocultural adaptation in the hominids. Humans have no parallel except rats in the skill to adjust the metabolic pathways so that any quality consumable material could be used as food to gain evolutionary advantage. Many of the associations between the consumption of certain food items and health are learned by individuals and often get transformed as societal norms. These societal norms develop into a complex set of religious rules and food taboos. Thus dietetics is the culmination of a long culture-historical process involving behavioural guidelines to what and how food is to be consumed. Cultural adaptations are not independent of the biological necessities. Therefore, for examining role of dietetic rules and regulations in any human society, it is essential to understand if anything like 'natural' and 'universal' human diet exists or not? Main aim of this article is therefore, to set forth an evolutionary background for discussion of dietetics in ancient India. This paper attempts to integrate available biological (primate biology), archaeological and palaeontological data.

Dietary behaviour forms a very important component of adaptive strategies of animal species. Human dietary habits, being a natural part of animal world and its food chain, are governed by both biological necessity and culture-specific determinants involved in the selection and consumption of the food items. Modern human dietary behaviour (last 10000 years) exhibits wide variations related to the type of food selected and/or deliberately avoided (food taboos). Cultural, social, religious and geographical factors are known to affect the processes of food procurement, preparation and consumption. At the same time the legacy of evolution from the apes to the modern humans continues to modulate human dietary habits to a great extent. The study of diet of living primates and extinct human species reveals that human dietary behaviour is extremely complex and from biocultural point of view, one cannot find any particular food as the 'natural' one and universally acceptable.