Aug 12, 2023 09:00:00

Research results that women also participate in hunting in hunting and gathering societies around the world, there is no clear division of `` men hunt and women gather ''

In

hunter-gatherer societies , where life is based on hunting wild animals and collecting animals and plants instead of farming, there is traditionally a division of roles based on gender, with men in charge of hunting and women in charge of gathering. The idea is deeply rooted. However, a study of more than 60 hunter-gatherer societies that survived to the present day found that women also participate in hunting in 80% of societies.

The Myth of Man the Hunter: Women's contribution to the hunt across ethnographic contexts | PLOS ONE
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287101

Men hunt and women gather? Large analysis says the long-held idea is flat-out wrong | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/men-hunt-and-women-gather-large-analysis-says-the-long-held-idea-is-flat-out-wrong

Women Hunt in Most Foraging Societies, Using Their Own Tools And Strategies: Science Alert
https://www.sciencealert.com/women-hunt-in-most-foraging-societies-using-their-own-tools-and-strategies

For many years, anthropologists and archaeologists have believed that human society has long had a division of labor between men and women. However, in recent years, cases of women among ancient fishermen and warriors have been reported one after another, and the stereotype of 'hunter men/gatherer women' is crumbling.

A new research team at Seattle Pacific University in the United States investigated the literature over the past 100 years about 63 hunter-gatherer societies that have survived to the present day across North and South America, Africa, Australia, Asia, and Oceania, and men and women in hunting and gathering. analyzed the division of labor.

'We read papers from people who lived with these groups and studied their behavior,' said Karla Wall-Schaeffler, a professor of biology at Seattle Pacific University. and recorded their actions,' he told the scientific media Live Science.

by

Carsten ten Brink

Of the hunter-gatherer societies surveyed, 79% had `` female hunters '', and it turned out that their roles did not change even after women became mothers. In addition, women's hunting is not only opportunistic, such as ``killing animals if there is a chance,'' but more than 70% of them go out hunting ``intentionally'' for the purpose of obtaining meat. We also found that in societies where hunting is the main source of food, 100% of women are also engaged in hunting.

It seems that there were cases where mothers took their infants hunting, and the research team pointed out that the idea that ``women cannot hunt because it interferes with childcare'' is not correct. 'Women in hunter-gatherer societies around the world have historically participated in hunting regardless of fertility, and still do today.'

“The women would go out with different tools and kill animals they saw,” Wall-Schaeffler said. 'There was no clear taboo against them,' he said. 'Everyone in the community knew that women would go hunting and that was their job.'

On the other hand, even within the same community, male and female hunters have different tools, hunting methods, and animals to hunt. In a hunting-gathering society called 'Aguta' in the Philippines, men mainly hunt with bows and arrows, while women often use knives as well as bows and arrows. Also, while men hunt alone or in pairs, women often hunt in larger groups.

According to Wall-Schaeffler, the stereotype that men are hunters and women are gatherers has been reinforced by books such as 1968's Man the Hunter and 1983's Woman the Gatherer. matter. ``If hunting animals feeds our communities, there's no point in ignoring women,'' Wall-Schaeffler said. I was.