The human tendency to sit together peacefully over food is an extraordinary phenomenon, and one which many species find impossible. It is also a phenomenon with far-reaching consequences for the environment and human social evolution. So how did this strange and powerful behaviour come about? In Feast, Martin Jones uses the latest archaeological methods to illuminate how humans came to share food and how the human meal has developed. From the earliest evidence of human consumption around half a million years ago to the era of the TV dinner, this fascinating account unfolds the history of the human meal and its impact on human society and the ecology of the planet.

1. A return to the hearth 2. Are we so different? How apes eat 3. In search of big game 4. Fire, cooking, and growing a brain 5. Naming and eating 6. Among strangers 7. Seasons of the feast 8. Hierarchy and the food chain 9. Eating in order to be 10. Far from the hearth 11. The stomach and the soul 12. A global food web

Martin Jones , George Pitt-Rivers Professor of Archaeological Science, University of Cambridge