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A recent study from just a few months ago is shaking up stereotypes in the hunting world.
Regardless of your belief in evolution, it’s clear that hunter-gatherer societies have had a significant impact throughout history. History traditionally sets men and females in certain roles.
When we think of Native Americans, the Mesopotamian Nomads, early American Pioneers, or the Incans, society tends to put men in the “hunter” role, and women in the “gatherer” role.
This recent study from PLOS ONE is now setting a new narrative. Their study claims that men weren’t the only ones who hunted.
Women Gatherers Or Women Hunters?
Science.org has taken this study and translated it into terms that the average person can understand. In their words, “These data flatly reject a long-standing myth that men hunt, women gather, and that this division runs deep in human history.”
According to Science.org, “forager women” were far more common – and successful – than we would have believed. A forager woman is a woman who gathers and hunts, not limited to either role. Apparently, “In the 1980s, Agta women of the Philippines drew bows and arrows as tall as themselves and aimed at wild pigs and deer.”
To explain why this is so significant, many sources have taken to quoting the “Man The Hunter” narrative from the early 20th century. This worldview supported the idea of women staying home and being gatherers.
Many cited women’s weaknesses as reasons that the men hunted. Pregnancies and menstrual cycles attracted predators, it was simply safer for the women to stay behind.
Not Really A New Idea
As recently as 1966, there were still individuals actively pushing the concept that men were the sole hunters of society. It wasn’t long after this, however, that evidence began to surface of women hunters in many forager groups.
When conducting research for the study, the team found records “which spanned the late 1800s to 2010s, [describing] 63 forager groups in the Americas, Africa, Eurasia, Australia, and Oceania. Women hunted in 50 of those 63 societies.”
Gender roles seem to play a large part in the misconception, many researchers claim.
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However in the past, as one researcher, Cara Wall-Scheffler said, “If somebody liked to hunt, they could just hunt.” Eliminating many of the rules we have subconsciously placed.
Despite this, those researching did discover differences in men’s and women’s hunting styles.
“For example, among the Agta, men almost always wielded bows and arrows, whereas some women preferred knives. Men were more likely to head out solo or in pairs, whereas women generally hunted in groups and with dogs,” Science.org tells us.
Women Are Hunters Too – Conclusion
This study has arrived at an interesting point of politics and opinions. Women, the hunters? Apparently, 50 years ago, no one would have accepted the idea. But today, people have embraced the concept with open arms.
So what do you think? Does it make sense that women have been hunting just as long as men have?
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