[jvdh]

Lions are carnivores, their teeth are specifically targetted at tearing and eating meat, which is why they have large incisors. Cows are herbivors, their teeth are flat, and have no incisors at all.

Humans have a combination of the two, and also the rest of our digestive system is also built to makes us omnivores.

[rubashov]

This is a ridiculous point because for over two million years human related hominids have been using stone tools to kill and butcher meat.

Humans have massive predator fangs that look like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Bifaz_de_...

[sliverstorm]

Teeth serve two purposes- catching and chewing/ripping/tearing.

Long fangs are for catching. Cats don't really chew food, nor do snakes. Both rely on their teeth to stab and hold prey, which is why they are sharp like needles.

Our cutting teeth are for slicing and chewing- in other words, processing the meat after it's been caught. The 'massive predator fangs' take care of catching it, but have you ever eaten meat without biting off a piece, ONLY cutting it up into little bits and chewing it? There's a reason that's relegated to high society, it's not worthwhile for everyone else, and it'd be ridiculously hard with stone tools.

[rubashov]

> have you ever eaten meat without biting off a piece, ONLY cutting it up into little bits and chewing it?

Uh, pretty much every day? I'm pretty sure that's what pre-humans did, too. They butchered, cooked, and cut it up. Dentition is irrelevant.

> it'd be ridiculously hard with stone tools.

They were kept razor sharp. It would not be hard.

[sliverstorm]

They cut it up into bite-sized pieces? I really doubt that. Notice only people who worry about etiquette tend to do that, and I don't think etiquette existed when we were cutting things with rocks. Perhaps chunks were sliced off, but I can't help but laugh at the thought of a Stone Age man cutting his meat into little cubes.

As a further argument, notice how most people eat a drumstick? It comes naturally.