Cultural knowledge

[gfish]

It struck me the other day that blowing on food to cool it off, despite how instinctive it feels, is actually something that must be learned. Hot food did not exist until relatively recently, after all. For the vast majority of our evolution, the hottest food ever got was body temperature. When fire was cutting edge technology, burning your mouth would have been an unexpected side-effect. (Sure, this fire stuff is a neat trick, but it's simply too dangerous to be used regularly. It's just a fad!) Blowing on things was the anti-virus software of the age.

Given that, I think it has the potential to be the oldest piece of cultural heritage in existence. There is an unbroken line of ancestors stretching from you back into pre-history, each of them learning from the previous generation that one should blow on hot food before taking a bite.

Comments

[hpapillon.livejournal.com]

... wait, people blow on food? And this actually works?

Why didn't anyone tell me this? :)

(I'm honestly trying to remember blowing on anything. I've certainly seen people blow on hot soup, but it seems to me that if it's too hot to eat, you wait! Or you dip bread in the soup until it cools down a bit.)