Has it ever struck you that in the iconography of the history books, the man in the cave is always a man? If there is an image that can be compared to the discovery of fire, it is that of a rude man, covered in furs as best he can, fighting with an improvised pyre. If the first lunar calendars found in some caves are to be illustrated, it is always the image of a man serving as a dowry. Still, some anthropologists point out that it’s highly likely that a 28-day monthly count may have been more useful for a woman to predict her upcoming menstrual days. And fire might also have been invented by a prehistoric cook. In short, we don’t know certain things about the past, but we mustn’t assume that the female characters were just mothers and gatherers, as commonly depicted in historical illustrations.
The stereotype of the huntsman collapses
A broadside of the generally accepted concept of the “collector woman and hunter man” then comes from a more recent one Study of 63 hunter-gatherer communities from around the world living in the last century. In fact, research shows that females also hunt 80% of the time: they use more diverse tools and strategies and often manage to capture large prey.
Artifacts for big game hunting in women’s graves
The results, published by researchers at Seattle Pacific University in the journal Plos One, could lead to a re-examination of the interpretation of many archaeological finds. They even included some items that experts were reluctant to define as tools for big game hunting precisely because they were found in women’s burials. Some researchers previously assumed that female hunters were a thing of the past and that in modern societies there was the classic distinction between male hunters and female gatherers.
They also hunted the mothers
To dispel this stereotype, scientists from Seattle Pacific University studied 63 hunter-gatherer communities from the last century living in North and South America, Africa, Australia, Asia and Oceania. They found that in 79% of the communities surveyed, women were also hunters, regardless of whether they were mothers. In more than 70% of cases, the hunt appeared to be intentional (i.e. not opportunistic hunting of animals encountered incidentally engaged in other activities) and targeted prey of all sizes, more often large prey. The study also shows that women are actively involved in teaching hunting techniques and often use a greater variety of tools and strategies than men.
07.03.2023