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I heard from an Aboriginal tour guide that in native populations everyone just did the role they wanted / were good at, and it was only from the introduction of Christian missionaries that such a division of labour was encouraged.
Buffalo bird women (native American) considered it boys work to hunt ,and girls to tend the fields.
It's important to question the beliefs we're raised with, especially when seeking truth as scientists tend to do. I'm glad to see research like this, and especially the bit at the end of the abstract about examining prior conclusions that were influenced by patriarchal cultural bias. There's something about how hard this notion of, "men hunt, women gather and take care of children, in all human societies past and present" is to shake that has me reminded of something:
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."
That heuristic is generally taken to be accurate among the scientifically literate, Carl Sagan coined it even, but it is deeply flawed. Cultural notions of ordinary define what is seen as extraordinary. An idea that is normalized in our society needs much less evidence to convince people of it, while one that goes against normality needs much more to even begin to gain traction. The concept is flawed because 'ordinary' is socially defined, so while it can be used to discredit obviously wrong ideas like the existence of ghosts, it can also be used to discredit obviously wrong ideas like the CIA using LSD to (try to) control peoples' minds. Pretty extraordinary claim, but it did happen. Maybe you see the issue with this heuristic, while the idea expressed is intuitive, it hides a sneaky cultural bias.
I think something similar goes on with ideas like the one this study refutes. It seems so clear in our patriarchal society that men and women are different, suited to different roles as we've been told so many times growing up, that the opposite concept is extraordinary. So you get scientists coming up with truly extraordinary explanations of why women are buried with hunting tools to maintain their conception of 'normal', and anyone who wants to refute it needs to go above-and-beyond only to still be met with skepticism.
Yeah I'll let the scientists debate this one out before believing this. Every time this comes up there's not enough evidence to make a convincing case. This one seems to have evidence from all around the world and makes some very bold claims.
Will be interested in how this new information changes things. It wouldn't surprise me that women hunted. There's always been girls in every traditional "male" activity I've done throughout my life.
And it's not like all hunting requires top-tier physicality, if someone is just good at tracking that's arguably the most important part of hunting, since you have to find game to kill it.
I've found it notable that a lot of people have latched onto the idea of humans as endurance/persistence hunters, tracking their prey down slowly until it's exhausted... While also entirely ignoring that women tend to do better than men in ultra-marathons (and more so the longer the ultra-marathon is).
And also how some people latch onto the idea of teamwork and communication being essential for hunting, and also decide that women are better at communication and cooperation, then fail to consider that maybe such a communication advantage might outweigh a physical advantage.
Also there can be advantages to being small in some situations, too, like for stealth, or for climbing trees, or making their way through dense brush. Or for surviving with less food and water on long journeys.
Also literally anyone in a society like that, even the least built of them, would be in better shape than the vast majority of humans from modern sedentary cultures. Including gym bros, I'd argue, because building a physique by active lifestyle (vs a few hours of targeted exercise within an overwhelmingly sedentary lifestyle) optimizes for that lifestyle in a balanced way and won't leave you with odd weak spots (no forgetting leg day, or forgetting to work out your core, then ending up with weird aches and pains).
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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