The Myth of Man the Hunter: Women’s contribution to the hunt across ethnographic contexts

Abstract

The sexual division of labor among human foraging populations has typically been recognized as involving males as hunters and females as gatherers. Recent archeological research has questioned this paradigm with evidence that females hunted (and went to war) throughout the Homo sapiens lineage, though many of these authors assert the pattern of women hunting may only have occurred in the past. The current project gleans data from across the ethnographic literature to investigate the prevalence of women hunting in foraging societies in more recent times. Evidence from the past one hundred years supports archaeological finds from the Holocene that women from a broad range of cultures intentionally hunt for subsistence. These results aim to shift the male-hunter female-gatherer paradigm to account for the significant role females have in hunting, thus dramatically shifting stereotypes of labor, as well as mobility.

Muscle activity during crouched walking

“…We limited our study of crouched walking to a male-only sample partly to avoid introduction of sex as a potential factor affecting the variables under study. But females could also use crouched walking during hunting of small game or even large game (Anderson et al, 2023). Similarly, the use of crouched walking to get away from a danger is also not restricted to males.…”

Woman the hunter: The archaeological evidence

“…Considering all this information, we return to the question: did Paleolithic women hunt? The emphasis on recent foragers to argue that hunting is a man's game cherry-picks the data and ignores the many groups where women are known to participate in hunting (Anderson et al, 2023). For instance, Northeast Asian Ainu women hunted large game with the assistance of dogs 6 (Watanabe, 1968), Amazonian Matses women hunt with their husbands and bring home more meat than solo male hunters (Romanoff, 1983), female Martu of Australia provide more consistent meat production than males (Bliege Bird and Bird, 2008), and North American Chipewyan women trapped game and fish (Jarvenpa and Brumbach, 1995).…”

“…For instance, Northeast Asian Ainu women hunted large game with the assistance of dogs 6 (Watanabe, 1968), Amazonian Matses women hunt with their husbands and bring home more meat than solo male hunters (Romanoff, 1983), female Martu of Australia provide more consistent meat production than males (Bliege Bird and Bird, 2008), and North American Chipewyan women trapped game and fish (Jarvenpa and Brumbach, 1995). Sometimes these hunting styles differ based on sex, but women are not wholly avoiding hunting in most forager societies (Anderson et al, 2023;Owen, 2005). Also, the early ethnographies of foragers reflect researcher bias toward the activities of men (Owen, 2005), but these ethnographies continue to be primary sources of data on foraging societies (synthesized in Murdock and Provost, 1973).…”

“…Anderson and colleagues (2023) recently revisited the ethnographic literature housed in the D-PLACE database and concur that 79% of recent forager cultures' entries contain descriptions of women hunting. Also, it was mostly intentional hunting documented (87% of cultures with descriptions of female hunting), not opportunistic (Anderson et al, 2023).…”

Human behaviors driving disease emergence

“…This is reflected in the literature examining zoonotic exposures, which typically describe hunting as an activity of adult males, with women being responsible for butchering, preparing, and trading wild meat 14,56 . However, recent research suggests women's contribution to hunting across ethnographic contexts is greater than previously understood 57 . Men and women do tend to specialize on different prey, possibly due to different selective pressures.…”