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# The lovely Maria Dobrovolskaya, head of the Laboratory of Contextual Anthropology at the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has spoken on a most unusual subject: vegetarianism and ancient people
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/prekrasnaia-mariia-dobrovolskaia-zavlaboratoriei-kontekstualnoi-antropologii-instituta-arkheologii-ran-vyskazalas-na-ochen-neprivychnuiu-temu-vegetarianstvo-i-drevnie-liudi/
- Published: 2021-01-18T14:12:07.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:41:41.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archaeology, Interviews, Science, People

The lovely Maria Dobrovolskaya, head of the Laboratory of Contextual Anthropology at the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has [spoken](https://youtu.be/w8f2P%5FGlLBg?ref=theparnassian.com) on a most unusual subject: vegetarianism and ancient people. Besides such questions as vegetarians among the ancestors of modern man and the influence of diet on the formation of communities, Maria Vsevolodovna spoke of the so-called robust australopithecines, who fed on plant food alone, and drew attention to something that, for some reason, often slips out of the discussants' field of vision: the energy cost of so demanding an organ as a large brain. A very pleasant and informative interview. Her words to the effect that the only factor of natural selection still at work today is, in essence, immunity sounded particularly timely. And it was especially agreeable to hear my own subject touched upon: the change in the physical appearance of man over the last 30 to 40 thousand years.