Did prehistoric women hunt? New research suggests this

For a long time it was believed that hunting in prehistoric societies was practiced mainly by men. Now a new study joins a body of evidence that challenges this idea. The research reports the discovery of a female body, buried next to hunting tools, in the Americas about 9,000 years ago.

The woman, discovered in the Andean highlands, was nicknamed Wilamaya Patjxa individual 6, or “WPI6”. She was found with her legs in a semi-flexed position, with the collection of stone tools carefully placed next to them. These included bullet points – tools that were likely used to aim light spears launched with an atlatl (also called a spear thrower). The authors argue that such bullet tips were used to hunt large animals.

WPI6 was between 17 and 19 years old at the time of death. It was an analysis of the substances known as “peptides” in her teeth – which are indicators for biological sex – that proved she was a woman. There were also large mammalian bones in the burial material, demonstrating the importance of hunting in his society.

The authors of the study, published in Science Advances, also looked at evidence of other skeletons buried around the same time in the Americas, specifically looking at graves containing similar tools associated with hunting big game. They found that of the 27 skeletons for which sex could be determined, 41% were likely female.

The authors propose that this may mean that the hunt for big game was indeed carried out by men and women in hunter-gatherer groups at the time in the Americas.

Competing hypotheses

This idea goes against a hypothesis, dating back to the 1960s, known as the “Man-The-Hunter model”, which is increasingly debunked. He suggests that hunting, and particularly the hunt for big game, was primarily, if not exclusively, undertaken by male members of past hunter-gatherer societies.

The hypothesis is based on a few different lines of evidence. Probably more significantly, consider recent and current hunter-gatherer societies to try to understand how those in the deeper past may have been organized.

The stereotypical view of hunter-gatherer groups is that they imply a gender-based division of labor, with men hunting and women more likely to stay closer to home with young children, or fish and forage, although also in this case there are some variations. For example, among Agta foragers in the Philippines, women are primary hunters rather than assistants.

Some hunter-gatherers today still use atlatls today, and some people also like to use atlatls in competitive launch events, with women and children attending regularly. Archaeologists studying data from these events suggest that atlatls may have been equalizers, facilitating hunting by both women and men, probably because they reduce the importance of body size and strength.

The new study further resizes the hypothesis, adding to some previous archaeological finds. For example, at the Sunghir site in Russia 34,000 years ago, archaeologists discovered the burial of two young men, one of whom was likely a girl of about 9-11 years old. Both individuals had physical anomalies and were buried with 16 mammoth ivory spears – an incredible offering of what were probably valuable hunting tools.

In 2017, a famous burial of a Viking warrior from Sweden, discovered in the early 20th century and long believed to be male, was discovered to be biologically female. This discovery has caused a significant and somewhat surprising amount of debate and indicates how our modern ideas about gender roles can influence interpretations of more recent history as well.

It has been argued that distinguishing between “men’s and women’s jobs,” as a former British prime minister put it, could have evolutionary advantages. For example, it can allow pregnant and lactating mothers to stay close to a home base, protecting themselves and young people from harm. But we are learning more and more that this model is too simplistic.

Since hunting is a key to survival for many highly mobile hunter-gatherer groups, community-wide participation also makes good evolutionary sense. The past, as some say, is a foreign country, and the more evidence we have, the more variable human behavior appears to have been.