325

The Theory That Men Evolved to Hunt and Women Evolved to Gather Is Wrong (www.scientificamerican.com)

submitted 1 week ago by LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net to c/science@lemmy.world

194 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/15901115

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] BugleFingers@lemmy.world 55 points 1 week ago

I had always assumed that Hunter-Gatherer societies were very loosely sex divided and strongly necessity based. Meaning, sure men could be the typical hunter and women the typical gatherer but if necessity dictates, any person would do any job, and, given the times, that was probably frequently.

Furthermore they also likely didn't have societal structures the way modern societies did, meaning people likely weren't barred from any job or forced into any job, it was a community effort for survival, if you meet a criteria that can help, you do that.

These are not factual statements, these are just my assumptions on how I figured they reasonably existed.

[-] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

At least some of them took the kids down to the creek every 6 months or so, and threw the babies in the water to see who would swim. The ones that didn't swim stayed back at the camp and fixed pottery, cleaned, cooked, etc. The swimmers became the hunters and gatherers. Several of the Native American Nations in the Eastern US did this when white man came over and invaded. According to their oral histories, they had been doing this for a few tens of thousands of years, which seems to match up to the archaeological evidence we've found in the last couple decades.