The Theory That Men Evolved to Hunt and Women Evolved to Gather Is Wrong

🌈 Abstract

The article challenges the long-held "Man the Hunter" theory, which posits that hunting was the primary driver of human evolution and was carried out exclusively by men. It presents evidence from exercise science, archaeology, and ethnography that suggests women also actively participated in hunting throughout human history.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Even if you're not an anthropologist, you've probably encountered one of this field's most influential notions, known as Man the Hunter.

1. What is the "Man the Hunter" theory?

• The "Man the Hunter" theory proposes that hunting was a major driver of human evolution and that men carried out this activity to the exclusion of women.
• It holds that human ancestors had a division of labor, rooted in biological differences between males and females, where males evolved to hunt and provide, while females tended to children and domestic duties.
• The theory assumes that males are physically superior to females and that pregnancy and child-rearing reduce or eliminate a female's ability to hunt.

2. How has the "Man the Hunter" theory influenced popular culture and academia?

• The "Man the Hunter" theory has dominated the study of human evolution for nearly half a century and has permeated popular culture, being represented in museum dioramas, textbook figures, cartoons, and films.
• The theory rose to prominence in 1968 with the publication of the edited volume "Man the Hunter", which drew on ethnographic, archaeological, and paleoanthropological evidence to argue that hunting drove human evolution.

[02] Mounting evidence from exercise science indicates that women are physiologically better suited than men to endurance efforts such as running marathons.

1. What physiological advantages do women have over men for endurance activities?

• Women are metabolically better suited for endurance activities due to the effects of the hormone estrogen, which:
  • Encourages the body to use stored fat for energy before carbohydrates, delaying fatigue
  • Promotes greater fat storage within muscles, making energy more readily available
  • Helps prevent muscle breakdown during intense exercise
• Women also have more type I (slow-twitch) muscle fibers, which are better suited for endurance, compared to men who have more type II (fast-twitch) fibers.

2. How do these physiological differences manifest in athletic performance?

• Women tend to slow down less as a race progresses compared to men in endurance events like marathons.
• Women are more regularly dominating ultra-endurance events like long-distance running, swimming, and cycling races.
• The evidence suggests that the perceived superiority of men in endurance sports is more a result of biases in how male and female athletes are treated, rather than inherent biological differences.

[03] The modern physiological evidence, along with historical examples, exposes deep flaws in the idea that physical inferiority prevented females from partaking in hunting during our evolutionary past.

1. What evidence from prehistory undermines the idea that women were physically incapable of hunting?

• Skeletal remains of ancient humans show low sexual size dimorphism, suggesting a more egalitarian social structure compared to our chimpanzee-like ancestors.
• Neandertal female and male skeletons exhibit the same patterns of wear and tear, indicating they were engaged in the same activities like hunting large game and processing hides.
• Burial practices in the Upper Paleolithic period show no evidence of social hierarchies based on sex, with females and males interred with the same kinds of artifacts.
• Ancient DNA analysis reveals patrilocality (males staying in their birth groups, females moving to other groups) among some Neandertals, suggesting flexibility in social roles rather than rigid gender divisions.

2. What evidence from modern hunter-gatherer societies contradicts the "Man the Hunter" theory?

• Ethnographic data from the past 100 years shows that women from a wide range of foraging societies actively participate in hunting, regardless of their childbearing status.
• The Agta people of the Philippines, for example, have women who hunt while menstruating, pregnant, and breastfeeding, with the same success rate as men.
• These findings directly challenge the assumption that women's bodies and childcare responsibilities limit their ability to engage in hunting.

[04] Hunting may have been remade as a masculine activity in recent times, but for most of human history, it belonged to everyone.

1. What factors led to the emergence of rigid gender roles and economic inequality in human societies?

• The arrival of agriculture around 10,000 years ago, with its intensive investment in land, population growth, and clumped resources, led to the development of more rigid gendered roles and economic inequality.
• Prior to this, in small, nomadic foraging groups, flexibility and adaptability were more important than rigid gender-based divisions of labor, as all group members needed to be able to fulfill different roles as needed.

2. How does the article suggest we should view the "cave people" of the past?

• The article suggests we should imagine a mixed-sex group of hunters encircling an errant reindeer or knapping stone tools together, rather than the stereotypical image of a heavy-browed man with a club and a trailing bride.
• Hunting may have been reframed as a masculine activity in more recent times, but for most of human history, it belonged to everyone, both women and men.