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The theory that prehistoric hunting was only for men appears to be a modern macho construct after a discovery in an ancient burial site in Peru.
The remains of a teenager who lived about 9,000 years ago have been found, along with a “well-stocked game hunting kit”.
It was previously thought that women were foragers while men hunted, but the researchers say the results challenge this hypothesis.
The discovery inspired researchers to examine records from other burial sites in North and South America
Randy Haas, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis, and lead author of the study, said, “An archaeological discovery and analysis of early burial practices overturn the long-standing ‘man-hunter’ hypothesis. date.
“Work practices among recent hunter-gatherer societies are highly gendered, which may lead some to believe that sexist inequalities in things like pay or rank are somehow ‘natural’.
“But now it is clear that the sexual division of labor was fundamentally different – probably more equal – in the deep past of hunter-gatherers of our species.”
The remains of the huntress were found in 2018 during excavations at Wilamaya Patjxa, a high-altitude site in Peru.
The remains were found in Wilamaya Patjxa, a high altitude site in Peru
The tool kit buried with her included “stone bullet tips for taking down large animals, a knife and rock flakes to remove internal organs, and tools for scraping and tanning hides.”
The researchers used protein analysis of the dental remains to confirm that the remains were female.
They used bone tests to conclude that she may have been between the ages of 17 and 19 when she died.
The discovery inspired researchers to examine archaeological records from other burial sites in North and South America.
They found evidence of 27 individuals buried with large game hunting tools – 11 females and 16 males, suggesting that between 30% and 50% of the big game hunters who lived more than 10,000 years ago in the Americas may be female.
Prof Haas said: “Our findings made me rethink the more basic organizational structure of ancient hunter-gatherer groups and human groups more generally.
“Among historical and contemporary hunter-gatherers, it is almost always the case that the males are the hunters and the females the gatherers.
“Because of this – and probably because of sexist assumptions about the division of labor in Western society – the archaeological discoveries of women with hunting tools did not fit the prevailing world views.
“It took good reasons to help us recognize that the archaeological model indicated the actual hunting behavior of women.”
The research was published in the journal Science Advances.
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