Grossed out by that maggot squirming in your apple?
Your ancestors weren’t. In fact, they probably would have popped the offending creature into their mouths and relished its savory flavor. At least, that’s what Wayne State’s assistant professor of anthropology Julie Lesnik thinks. Dr. Lesnik studies how people (and their prehistoric relatives) have gathered, farmed, and cooked insects for food.
Dr. Lesnik’s presentation will draw from her new book, “Edible Insects and Human Evolution”, where she argues that people have been eating bugs for millennia, and our current disgust is a relatively new phenomenon. She incorporates research in human ecology, primatology, and paleoanthropology in order to reconstruct what insect consumption looked like in our earliest ancestors, and advocates for insects as a sustainable protein source that should be used more today, to feed the world’s growing population.
Julie Lesnik received her B.S. in Anthropology from Northern Illinois University in 2003 and her M.S. in Kinesiology and PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan in 2011. She joined the faculty in the Department of Anthropology at Wayne State in 2014. Her work has been supported by the Leakey Foundation, the American Association of University Women, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her book, “Edible Insects and Human Evolution”, was recently published by the University Press of Florida and has been featured by NPR and National Geographic.
Join us on Saturday, October 20 at Northwest Unitarian Universalist Church in Southfield, to hear Dr. Lesnik’s view on the past and future use of insects as a food source, and for a free sample of Crickets! Doors open at 7pm. The program begins at 8pm.
Adult members: $4, or a strip of 4 tickets – $12
Adult guests: $5
Children 12 and under: $2
Members receive free admission in the month of their birthday