Plant foods in savanna environments: A preliminary report of tubers eaten by the Hadza of northern Tanzania

Abstract

Recently interest has been re‐directed towards the importance of plant foods in the evolution of human diet, and especially of deeply buried roots and tubers. The hypothesised qualities of these foods which have been stressed are their relative abundance in savanna areas, their nutritive value, their availability year round, and the minimal competition from other animals. It has been suggested that their inclusion in the diet would have conferred some selective advantage to hominids using simple tools such as digging sticks. This paper presents one of the first attempts of an actualistic study designed to measure quantitatively aspects of this food source that would be of importance to human consumers. The setting is a savanna area in northern Tanzania which is inhabited by a group who still extensively exploit tubers for food, the Hadza.