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Woman the hunter: The archaeological evidence
Abstract
The Paleo‐fantasy of a deep history to a sexual division of labor, often described as “Man the Hunter and Woman the Gatherer,” continues to dominate the literature. We see it used as the default hypothesis in anatomical and physiological reconstructions of the past as well as studies of modern people evoking evolutionary explanations. However, the idea of a strict sexual labor division in the Paleolithic is an assumption with little supporting evidence, which reflects a failure to question how modern gender roles color our reconstructions of the past. Here we present examples to support women's roles as hunters in the past as well as challenge oft‐cited interpretations of the material culture. Such evidence includes stone tool function, diet, art, anatomy and paleopathology, and burials. By pulling together the current state of the archaeological evidence along with the modern human physiology presented in the accompanying paper (Ocobock and Lacy, this issue), we argue that not only are women well‐suited to endurance activities like hunting, but there is little evidence to support that they were not hunting in the Paleolithic. Going forward, paleoanthropology should embrace the idea that all sexes contributed equally to life in the past, including via hunting activities.
... We would like to begin our response to Martin and colleagues by thanking the authors for their thoughtful comments on our paper "Woman the Hunter: The Physiological Evidence" (Ocobock & Lacy, 2024). We are grateful for the expertise each author brings to the conversation and recognize the important contributions they have made to the field of biological anthropology and reproductive behavioral ecology, in particular. ...
... We are grateful for the expertise each author brings to the conversation and recognize the important contributions they have made to the field of biological anthropology and reproductive behavioral ecology, in particular. We believe many of the concerns voiced by Martin and colleagues would be alleviated when "Woman the Hunter: The Physiological Evidence" is taken in conjunction with "Woman the Hunter: The Archaeological Evidence" (Lacy & Ocobock, 2024). These two review articles were written and published as sister articles and are meant to be read and considered together. ...
... We establish that women are and were physiologically more than capable of, and potentially quite adept at, hunting. The fossil evidence from the Paleolithic indicates that injury patterns and rates (Trinkaus, 2011), skeletal use-wear patterns (Lacy and Trinkaus, in press), and grave goods (Harto Villén, 2021) are the same across individuals, irrespective of sex, suggesting they were all carrying out the same daily tasks and encountering the same risks (Lacy & Ocobock, 2024). These are lifetime cumulative indicators (Agarwal, 2016), which do not preclude breaks in hunting during late pregnancy and early postpartum. ...
... Biological male and biological female reproductive strategies differ in energetic costs and priorities, which can lead to a division of labor with different, but complementary, strategies pursued by males and females. Within certain environmental settings, ethnographic observations and BE suggest that the optimal strategy will be for men to hunt large game to attract mates and for women to gather sessile resources such as plants and shellfish and/or engage in low risk or passive procurement of game to provision offspring (Bird and Bliege Bird, 1997;Hawkes, 1990;Hawkes et al., 1991Hawkes et al., , 2001aHawkes et al., , 2001bHill et al., 1987;Hurtado et al., 1985;Jochim, 1988;Lacy and Ocobock, 2023;Marlowe, 2007;Ocobock and Lacy, 2023;O'Connell et al., 1999). ...
... In fact, a recent study shows that women are physiologically well-suited to hunting . We also do not posit that prehistoric women never hunted, as there is ethnographic and archaeological evidence that women do hunt (Anderson et al., 2023;Haas et al., 2020;Lacy and Ocobock, 2023). Rather we propose that, because in some environmental contexts hunting is not the optimal dietary strategy for provisioning family, women on the early Holocene Colorado Plateau may have focused on procuring and processing plant resources rather than less reliable animal resources. ...
Changes in technological investment may shed light on human responses to social and environmental change, yet these changes are difficult to quantify archaeologically. Here we develop a new technological investment index for examining change in chipped and ground stone tool investment and apply it to understand human behavioral changes during the early Holocene at North Creek Shelter, southern Utah, USA. The findings of this study suggest continued investment in chipped stone technology across the early Holocene, consistent with steady consumption of artiodactyls. Findings also suggest increased investment in ground stone technology, consistent with increased low-return plant resource consumption. Additionally, application of a quantitative model for lithics and mobility demonstrates increased reliance on local toolstone across the early Holocene, suggesting decreased mobility and longer stays at North Creek Shelter. Our results have implications for the division of labor, as some individuals continued to invest in chipped stone tools for hunting unreliable, high-return prey, while others increasingly invested in ground stone tools for processing more reliable, though lower-return, plants, which may have tethered hunter-gatherers to the site.
... observed that the critiques of Lacy and Ocobock (2023) are "rooted in assumptions that hunting is a 1058 ...
The phrase Man the Hunter is associated with sexist theories of human evolution, but wildly disparate use of the phrase has led to unnecessary scientific disagreement and popular misunderstanding. In this paper, we ask: what does Man the Hunter mean? We distinguish three historical meanings of Man the Hunter. First, in the early-to-mid 20th century, popular writers propagated ideas of human evolution that focused on hunting, men, aggression, rigid sexual divisions of labor, and immutable sex differences. These ideas gained widespread acceptance in popular circles and continue to be influential, but were rejected by anthropologists as early as the 1950s. Second, the Man the Hunter conference (1966) and resulting volume (1968) brought together hunter-gatherer scholars to synthesize how contemporary hunter-gatherers inform human prehistory. Third, Man the Hunter has referred to the field of hunter-gatherer behavioral ecology, which studies how human behavior is adapted to local environmental context, and has offered a critical foundation for present-day knowledge about hunting and gathering lifeways, and human origins, which we summarize. In the final section of the paper, we trace the historical development of these three meanings of Man the Hunter, situating their origins in evolutionary biology, ethnology, feminist studies, ethology, genetics, and other disciplines. While the latter two meanings were strongly intertwined, there was little intellectual exchange, and mostly antagonism, between these two and the earlier popularized meaning. Based on these disparate histories, conflating the three meanings of Man the Hunter should be avoided. Finally, we offer suggestions for improving scientific and popular discourse regarding Man the Hunter.
... In other studies, 55 explaining variation in sex-related musculoskeletal disease prevalence has been based on perceived population roles, although the assumption has been challenged. [141][142][143][144] Unresolved questions appear to be the rule rather than the exception. Lastly, with living or postmortem individuals, and also with archaeological specimens, it has become evident that pathology may or may not have been symptomatic. ...
Postreactive morphological alterations of enthesal surfaces, often termed historically and collectively as “enthesitis,” were thought to reflect typical daily activities. Actually, an important real cause of altered enthesal surfaces is augmentation of the osseous base, a physiological reaction. Further, altered enthesal attachments often reveal partial-to-complete avulsion and dystrophic calcification (ossification) secondary to injury, a pathological process. Descriptively, the suffixes “sis,” “osis,” and “asis” (as appropriate grammatically) signal a general “affected with” state. The more preferred suffix “opathy” suggests pathology and does not indicate cause. In clinical terms, the suffix “itis” refers specifically to underlying inflammation, whereas suspected noninflammatory disease should be termed “osis” or “asis.” From an archeological perspective, the underlying disease usually is not evident, and therefore, enthesopathy would be the more appropriate descriptor. Additionally, when describing apparent physiological responses to normal stressors, “osseous surface augmentation” is appropriate. Importantly, then, the suffix “itis” is associated with defined tissue cellularity, systemic hematology, and clinical signs of heat, swelling, redness, and pain. Where the latter observations are not possible, the “itis” inference is indirect at best. In most of the latter instances, the “itis” suffix should be limited to a properly constructed differential diagnosis list.
... Just as recent studies have suggested the more frequent engagement of women in hunting in the ethnographic [16,17,100] and archaeological [101,102] record than previously assumed, our results show high levels of locomotor versatility across both genders, the majority of societies coded for each modality exhibiting no clear gender bias in engagement. Running was typically documented to be both a male and a female behaviour, with only a small proportion of societies reporting explicit biases towards male engagement. ...
Studies of hunter–gatherer locomotion inform a wide range of academic fields, from human behavioural ecology and hominin evolution to sports science and evolutionary health. Despite celebrated ethnographic examples of hunter–gatherer locomotor proficiency in running, climbing, swimming and diving, there has been limited systematic analysis of cross-cultural variation in hunter–gatherer locomotor versatility. We conducted a systematic cross-cultural analysis of hunter–gatherer locomotion, coding locomotor behaviour from over 900 ethnographic documents. Our results indicated that high levels of locomotor versatility are common among hunter–gatherers, and that proficiency of running, climbing, swimming and diving is found in societies across the geographical and ecological breadth of the sample. Each locomotor modality was found to be relevant not only to food acquisition but also in leisure, ritual and violent conflict. Our results also indicated the prevalence of both male and female engagement within each locomotor modality, with climbing being the only modality to possess a notable bias towards male engagement in a substantial proportion of societies. The widespread habituality and functional significance of diverse locomotor proficiency in hunter–gatherers suggests that locomotor versatility represents a dimension of human adaptive lability, playing a major role in the ability of hunter–gatherers to thrive in almost every global ecology.
... In fact, part of evolutionary psychology, a field born out of evolutionary biology from the 1970s [strongly based on Trivers (1972); see also Fausto-Sterling et al., 1997], seems to have succumbed to this pattern as it recurrently overemphasises gender differences (Eagly & Wood, 1999;Stewart-Williams & Thomas, 2013). Studies from evolutionary psychologists commonly rely on assumptions related to other animals and ancestral human societies [for which information is scarce and biased (see Anderson et al., 2023;Lacy & Ocobock, 2024)] to make hypotheses on current human behaviours (e.g. Geary, 2021). ...
Sexual selection has been a popular subject within evolutionary biology because of its central role in explaining odd and counterintuitive traits observed in nature. Consequently, the literature associated with this field of study became vast. Meta‐analytical studies attempting to draw inferences from this literature have now accumulated, varying in scope and quality, thus calling for a synthesis of these syntheses. We conducted a systematic literature search to create a systematic map with a report appraisal of meta‐analyses on topics associated with sexual selection, aiming to identify the conceptual and methodological gaps in this secondary literature. We also conducted bibliometric analyses to explore whether these gaps are associated with the gender and origin of the authors of these meta‐analyses. We included 152 meta‐analytical studies in our systematic map. We found that most meta‐analyses focused on males and on certain animal groups (e.g. birds), indicating severe sex and taxonomic biases. The topics in these studies varied greatly, from proximate (e.g. relationship of ornaments with other traits) to ultimate questions (e.g. formal estimates of sexual selection strength), although the former were more common. We also observed several common methodological issues in these studies, such as lack of detailed information regarding searches, screening, and analyses, which ultimately impairs the reliability of many of these meta‐analyses. In addition, most of the meta‐analyses' authors were men affiliated to institutions from developed countries, pointing to both gender and geographical authorship biases. Most importantly, we found that certain authorship aspects were associated with conceptual and methodological issues in meta‐analytical studies. Many of our findings might simply reflect patterns in the current state of the primary literature and academia, suggesting that our study can serve as an indicator of issues within the field of sexual selection at large. Based on our findings, we provide both conceptual and analytical recommendations to improve future studies in the field of sexual selection.
... Thus, correlation with age reflects a lifetime of "insults" and similarly the variable prevalence in females (compared with males) presumably represents differential trauma exposure. Explaining sexual prevalence variation has often been predicated on perceived population roles (e.g., Villotte, Churchill, et al., 2010), although that latter assumption has been challenged (Axtell, 1981;Lacy & Ocobock, 2023;Macintosh et al., 2017;Waguespack, 2005). ...
Sharpey's fiber alterations, referred to as entheseal reaction or enthesopathy, have long been considered an indicator of daily activities. Such semantic transformation seems to conflate processes which alter the characteristics of tendonous and ligamentous attachments to bone with the rugosity and extent of their base/footprint. Rather than reflecting normal activities, it is suggested that surface reactions are actually the response to the application of sudden or unconditioned repetitive stresses—analogous to stress fractures. Thus, they are distinct from enlargement of the base/footprint, the bone remodeling process responsible for the robusticity of the area to which the enthesis attaches, which is actually a measure of actual muscle activity. Surface reactions in attachment areas represent injury, be it mechanical stress fracture‐equivalents or inflammation‐derived. Bone base/footprint is the reaction of the enthesis to stresses of routine physical activities. The character of underlying bone supporting Sharpey's fibers may be augmented by applied stress, but there is neither a physiologic mechanism nor is there evidence for significant addition of Sharpey's fibers beyond ontogeny. Behavior is responsible for the physiologic response of robusticity; spiculation, pathology.
... Pueblo did not engage in some activities, including hunting, that entailed long-distance travel-even in societies with traditional gendered division of labor, there is overlap between the sexes in such activities (Lacy & Ocobock, 2024;Temple et al., 2023). The temporal change in sexual dimorphism of bone shape observed in the present study is most likely to reflect concurrent changes in average levels of long-distance travel within the sexes, and the lack of gender-related differences among contemporary industrial societies in general. ...
Objectives
Comparisons between Indigenous peoples over time and within a particular geographic region can shed light on the impact of environmental transitions on the skeleton, including relative bone strength, sexual dimorphism, and age‐related changes. Here we compare long bone structural properties of the inhabitants of the late prehistoric‐early historic Pecos Pueblo with those of present‐day Indigenous individuals from New Mexico.
Materials and Methods
Femora and tibiae of 126 adults from Pecos Pueblo and 226 present‐day adults were included in the study. Cross‐sectional diaphyseal properties—areas and second moments of area—were obtained from past studies of the Pecos Pueblo skeletal sample, and from computed tomography scans of recently deceased individuals in the present‐day sample.
Results
Femora and tibiae from Pecos individuals are stronger relative to body size than those of present‐day Indigenous individuals. Present‐day individuals are taller but not wider, and this body shape difference affects cross‐sectional shape, more strongly proximally. The tibia shows anteroposterior strengthening among Pecos individuals, especially among males. Sexual dimorphism in midshaft bone shape is stronger within the Pecos Pueblo sample. With aging, Pecos individuals show more medullary expansion but also more subperiosteal expansion than present‐day individuals, maintaining bone strength despite cortical thinning.
Discussion
Higher activity levels, carried out over rough terrain and throughout adult life, likely explain the relatively stronger lower limb bones of the Pecos individuals, as well as their greater subperiosteal expansion with aging. Greater sexual dimorphism in bone structure among Pecos individuals potentially reflects greater gender‐based differences in behavioral patterns.
... The extent to which subsistence labor was gendered among early forager societies remains unclear [1][2][3][4][5] . Forager ethnography suggests that large-mammal hunting was the purview of males 6 , but archaeologists have long cautioned against projection of recent forager behavior onto the past 7 . ...
Approximately 9000 years ago at the Andean highland site of Wilamaya Patjxa, forager communities interred female and male individuals with projectile points, suggesting that large-mammal hunting may have been a gender neutral activity among that community. We report a lithic usewear analysis, which confirms that the ostensible projectile points were indeed used as projectile points. The data further reveal evidence of cutting and hide scraping consistent with animal processing activities. A new radiocarbon date shows that the female and male individuals were contemporaries, or nearly so, sometime between 9.0 and 8.7 cal. ka. These findings support a model of early subsistence practices in which both female and male individuals at Wilamaya Patjxa hunted large mammals.
Objectives
Perceptions of female energetic contributions and their role in human evolution are limited. This exploratory study compares energy expenditure, return rate, and foraging efficiency between infant carrying methods in females simulating acorn foraging practices by Indigenous communities in western North America.
Materials and Methods
After resting metabolic rate (RMR) was collected, female volunteers ( n = 6, age: 21–37) conducted three 1‐h bouts of acorn foraging. First, volunteers foraged unloaded (control) while for the second and third bouts they foraged carrying a traditional basketry cradle or a chest sling (randomized order) with 4.5 kg sandbags. Energy expenditure (EE) was measured through indirect calorimetry, physical activity intensity was assessed using accelerometry, and foraging return rates (RR) were calculated after acorn processing.
Results
The inter‐bout results are not statistically significant. Findings show, however, that foraging RR largely surpasses EE irrespective of infant carrying method. The cradle carrying technique resulted in the largest mean EE, yet it was more efficient than the sling‐carrying method. Most of the time foraging was spent at moderate physical intensity, especially during cradle‐carrying bouts compared to the sling‐carrying and control groups.
Conclusions
This small exploratory study demonstrates the caloric contributions by and foraging efficiency of females. Our findings emphasize that child‐carrying techniques using basketry cradles allow for improved efficiency in foraging returns compared to more commonly used slings. Our results reinforce previous findings of female foraging efficiency despite the energetic demands of infant carrying and emphasize the energetic contributions of females to human evolution even during child‐rearing.
The target article explores material culture datasets from three African forager groups. After demonstrating that these modern, contemporary human populations would leave scant evidence of symbolic behaviour or material complexity, it cautioned against using material culture as a barometer for human cognition in the deep past. Twenty-one commentaries broadly support or expand these conclusions. A minority offer targeted demurrals, highlighting (1) the soundness of reasoning from absence; and questioning (2) the “cognitively modern” null; (3) the role of hunter-gatherer ethnography; and (4) the pertinence of the inferential issues identified in the target article. In synthesising these discussions, this reply addresses all four points of demurral in turn, and concludes that there is much to be gained from shifting our null assumptions and reconsidering the probabilistic inferential links between past material culture and cognition.
https://www.foragerarchaeology.org/publications.html
This analysis hypothesizes that baby wearing limits the performance capabilities of atlatl technology. If so, such hindrance would have disproportionately affected child caregivers who tend to be breastfeeding females and thus could have contributed to sexual division of subsistence labor among the many forager societies of the past that used baby-wearing and atlatl technologies. Contrary to expectation, experimental atlatl trials including a total of 208 casts fail to find any significant effect of baby wearing on atlatl accuracy or kinetic energy. The results suggest that the mechanical advantages of the atlatl system coupled with the conserved body motion entailed by the delivery mechanism make it possible to safely and effectively operate an atlatl with a baby in tow. Although this analysis does not preclude other limiting factors related to hunting with children, it nonetheless shows that atlatl technology could have been accessible to child caregivers.
The deep time record indicates that hunting played a key role in human evolution, including in the development of the life history of humans. The archaeological record preserves many different avenues for understanding early hunting including hunting gear, butchered prey, and art. As a complex skill, hunting likely involved a long learning period to develop competencies. While rare, there are some exceptional circumstances in which the toys and tools with which children and adolescents learned to hunt have preserved. In many cases though, we rely on ethnographic data to fill in gaps in understanding past children’s tangible and intangible culture of hunting, including how they developed skills which would have allowed them and their communities to survive and thrive. This paper reviews the relevant archaeological and ethnographic records of the hunting activities of forager children and adolescents, and explores areas where we see commonalities as well as divergences in these data. Ethnographies provide ‘real world’ data that can fill in intangible aspects of the deep past, while the archaeological record has its own unique stories to tell.
Eating (red) meat and masculinity are historically and culturally associated, leading to the stereotype “real men eat meat” in western societies. Existing literature primarily examines men’ motivations, justifications, and attitudes toward meat consumption; however, there is limited understanding of the themes that emerging adult men associate with their meat consumption and how these themes relate to their masculine identity. This study employed semi-structured interviews with thirty men aged 18 to 29, living in Flanders, Belgium. Through inductive analysis, we identified five meat themes (i.e. the topics men talk about when discussing their meat-eating behavior): “traditional cuisine”, “doing meat”, “fitness”, “taste”, and “meat ethics”. Subsequently, these themes were deductively connected to the frameworks of Wong and Wang’s (2022) model of masculinities and Piazza et al.’s (2015) 4N scale of meat justification to gain insight into the link between masculine identities and meat consumption. Finally, we formulated five “masculine meat identities”: “normative”, “performative”, “embodied”, “hedonistic” and “ethical” meat masculinities. Each identity reflects how men utilize meat, particularly red meat, for communicating and reinforcing their masculine identity, while also serving as a medium for expressing personal and social identities. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of how food, especially meat, operates as a means of communicating gender, bridging the disciplines of food and masculinities studies. Moreover, insights obtained from these masculine meat identities provide implications for public health, marketing, and policy. By tailoring strategies that resonate with diverse masculine identities, stakeholders can better align their initiatives with global health and sustainable objectives.
People tend to befriend others similar to themselves, generating a pattern called homophily. However, existing studies on friendship patterns often rely on surveys that assess the perspective of relatively few participants on their friendships but do not measure actualized friendship patterns. Here, we used data from a large Slovakian online social network to assess the role of gender, age, and body mass index (BMI) in same-gender online connections among more than 400,000 users. We found that age and BMI homophily occurred in both men’s and women’s same-gender connections, but somewhat more strongly among men’s. Yet, as women diverged in BMI, their connections were less likely to be reciprocated. We discuss how the evolutionary legacy of men’s coalitional competition (e.g., warfare) and women’s mating competition or recruitment of allocare providers might contribute to these patterns in modern same-gender relationships. For example, men’s engagement in physical activities may lead to similar formidability levels among their same-gender peers. Altogether, our findings highlight the importance of trait similarity to same-gender friendship patterns.
The fields of biological anthropology and exercise physiology are closely related and can provide mutually beneficial insights into human performance. These fields often use similar methods and are both interested in how humans function, perform, and respond in extreme environments. However, these two fields have different perspectives, ask different questions, and work within different theoretical frameworks and timescales. Biological anthropologists and exercise physiologists can greatly benefit from working together when examining human adaptation, acclimatization, and athletic performance in the extremes of heat, cold, and high-altitude. Here we review the adaptations and acclimatizations in these three different extreme environments. We then examine how this work has informed and built upon exercise physiology research on human performance. Finally, we present an agenda for moving forward, hopefully, with these two fields working more closely together to produce innovative research that improves our holistic understanding of human performance capacities informed by evolutionary theory, modern human acclimatization, and the desire to produce immediate and direct benefits.
The atlatl is a handheld, rod-shaped device that employs leverage to launch a dart, and represents a major human technological innovation. One hypothesis for forager atlatl adoption over its presumed predecessor, the thrown javelin, is that a diverse array of people could achieve equal performance results, thereby facilitating inclusive participation of more people in hunting activities. We tested this hypothesis via a systematic assessment of 2160 weapon launch events by 108 people who used both technologies. Our results show that, unlike the javelin, the atlatl equalizes the velocity of female-and male-launched projectiles. This result indicates that a javelin to atlatl transition would have promoted a unification, rather than division, of labor. Moreover, our results suggest that female and male interments with atlatl weaponry should be interpreted similarly.
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.
Artefacts made from stones, bones and teeth are fundamental to our understanding of human subsistence strategies, behaviour and culture in the Pleistocene. Although these resources are plentiful, it is impossible to associate artefacts to specific human individuals¹ who can be morphologically or genetically characterized, unless they are found within burials, which are rare in this time period. Thus, our ability to discern the societal roles of Pleistocene individuals based on their biological sex or genetic ancestry is limited2–5. Here we report the development of a non-destructive method for the gradual release of DNA trapped in ancient bone and tooth artefacts. Application of the method to an Upper Palaeolithic deer tooth pendant from Denisova Cave, Russia, resulted in the recovery of ancient human and deer mitochondrial genomes, which allowed us to estimate the age of the pendant at approximately 19,000–25,000 years. Nuclear DNA analysis identifies the presumed maker or wearer of the pendant as a female individual with strong genetic affinities to a group of Ancient North Eurasian individuals who lived around the same time but were previously found only further east in Siberia. Our work redefines how cultural and genetic records can be linked in prehistoric archaeology.
Previous research shows that men eat more meat than women. We explore the extent to which self-rated gender typicality explains differences in meat consumption intentions and behaviour. We recruited a large sample (N = 4897) of Australian men and women to complete an online survey about their attitudes and intentions regarding meat consumption and abstention and measured their self-rated gender typicality (the extent men view themselves as masculine, and women view themselves as feminine). We used moderated regression analyses to investigate self-rated gender typicality as a moderator of the relationship between gender and meat-related variables. We demonstrated that for men, identifying as more masculine was associated with a lower likelihood of reducing meat consumption or considering veg*nism, and a greater belief that eating meat is normal. We also found that men, and those with more gender-typical self-ratings (regardless of gender), viewed meat as more natural , necessary, and nice. These findings suggest that self-rated gender typicality may be relevant for understanding gender differences in meat consumption behaviours. Appeals to adopt low-or no-meat diets may be more effective if they consider the ways Australian diets are interconnected with genders and identities. Increasing acceptance of alternative masculinities, and developing masculinity-friendly advertising of plant-based foods, could be useful in promoting meat reduction.
Genomic analyses of Neanderthals have previously provided insights into their population history and relationship to modern humans1–8, but the social organization of Neanderthal communities remains poorly understood. Here we present genetic data for 13 Neanderthals from two Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia: 11 from Chagyrskaya Cave9,10 and 2 from Okladnikov Cave¹¹—making this one of the largest genetic studies of a Neanderthal population to date. We used hybridization capture to obtain genome-wide nuclear data, as well as mitochondrial and Y-chromosome sequences. Some Chagyrskaya individuals were closely related, including a father–daughter pair and a pair of second-degree relatives, indicating that at least some of the individuals lived at the same time. Up to one-third of these individuals’ genomes had long segments of homozygosity, suggesting that the Chagyrskaya Neanderthals were part of a small community. In addition, the Y-chromosome diversity is an order of magnitude lower than the mitochondrial diversity, a pattern that we found is best explained by female migration between communities. Thus, the genetic data presented here provide a detailed documentation of the social organization of an isolated Neanderthal community at the easternmost extent of their known range.
The characterization of Neandertals’ diets has mostly relied on nitrogen isotope analyses of bone and tooth collagen. However, few nitrogen isotope data have been recovered from bones or teeth from Iberia due to poor collagen preservation at Paleolithic sites in the region. Zinc isotopes have been shown to be a reliable method for reconstructing trophic levels in the absence of organic matter preservation. Here, we present the results of zinc (Zn), strontium (Sr), carbon (C), and oxygen (O) isotope and trace element ratio analysis measured in dental enamel on a Pleistocene food web in Gabasa, Spain, to characterize the diet and ecology of a Middle Paleolithic Neandertal individual. Based on the extremely low δ66Zn value observed in the Neandertal’s tooth enamel, our results support the interpretation of Neandertals as carnivores as already suggested by δ15N isotope values of specimens from other regions. Further work could help identify if such isotopic peculiarities (lowest δ66Zn and highest δ15N of the food web) are due to a metabolic and/or dietary specificity of the Neandertals.
Variations in the cross-sectional properties of long bones are used to reconstruct the activity of human groups and differences in their respective habitual behaviors. Knowledge of what factors influence bone structure in Homo sapiens and Neandertals is still insufficient thus, this study investigated which biological and environmental variables influence variations in the femoral robusticity indicator of these two species. The sample consisted of 13 adult Neandertals from the Middle Paleolithic and 1959 adult individuals of H. sapiens ranging chronologically from the Upper Paleolithic to recent times. The femoral biomechanical properties were derived from the European data set, the subject literature, and new CT scans. The material was tested using a Mantel test and statistical models. In the models, the polar moment of area (J) was the dependent variable; sex, age, chronological period, type of lifestyle, percentage of the cortical area (%CA), the ratio of second moment areas of inertia about the X and Y axes (Ix/Iy), and maximum slope of the terrain were independent covariates. The Mantel tests revealed spatial autocorrelation of the femoral index in H. sapiens but not in Neandertals. A generalized additive mixed model showed that sex, %CA, Ix/Iy, chronological period, and terrain significantly influenced variation in the robusticity indicator of H. sapiens femora. A linear mixed model revealed that none of the analyzed variables correlated with the femoral robusticity indicator of Neandertals. We did not confirm that the gradual decline in the femoral robusticity indicator of H. sapiens from the Middle Paleolithic to recent times is related to the type of lifestyle; however, it may be associated with lower levels of mechanical loading during adolescence. The lack of correlation between the analysed variables and the indicator of femoral robusticity in Neandertals may suggest that they needed a different level of mechanical stimulus to produce a morphological response in the long bone than H. sapiens.
This paper presents rock art as a collective action in which different strata of society took part, including children and subadults. Until recent decades archaeology of childhood has not been in the main focus of the archaeological research, much less the participation of those children in the artistic activity. The present study approaches the palaeodemography of artists in the decorated caves through the paleolithic rock art itself. The approximate age of these individuals has been calculated through the biometric analysis of hand stencils in the caves of Fuente del Salín, Castillo, La Garma, Maltravieso and Fuente del Trucho, using 3D photogrammetric models as reference. The results have been compared with a modern reference population in order to assign the Palaeolithic hands to certain age groups. It has been demonstrated the presence of hand stencil motifs belongs to infants, children and juveniles, revealing this stratum's importance in the artistic activity.
Significance
Many quintessential human traits (e.g., larger brains) first appear in Homo erectus . The evolution of these traits is commonly linked to a major dietary shift involving increased consumption of animal tissues. Early archaeological sites preserving evidence of carnivory predate the appearance of H. erectus , but larger, well-preserved sites only appear after the arrival of H. erectus . This qualitative pattern is a key tenet of the “meat made us human” viewpoint, but data from sites across eastern Africa have not been quantitatively synthesized to test this hypothesis. Our analysis shows no sustained increase in the relative amount of evidence for carnivory after the appearance of H. erectus , calling into question the primacy of carnivory in shaping its evolutionary history.
Background
We are witnessing renewed debates regarding definitions and boundaries of human gender/sex, where lines of genetics, gonadal hormones, and secondary sex characteristics are drawn to defend strict binary categorizations, with attendant implications for the acceptability and limits of gender identity and diversity.
Aims
Many argue for the need to recognize the entanglement of gender/sex in humans and the myriad ways that gender experience becomes biology; translating this theory into practice in human biology research is essential. Biological anthropology is well poised to contribute to these societal conversations and debates. To do this effectively, a reconsideration of our own conceptions of gender/sex, gender identity, and sexuality is necessary.
Methods
In this article, we discuss biological variation associated with gender/sex and propose ways forward to ensure we are engaging with gender/sex diversity. We base our analysis in the concept of “biological normalcy,” which allows consideration of the relationships between statistical distributions and normative views. We address the problematic reliance on binary categories, the utilization of group means to represent typical biologies, and document ways in which binary norms reinforce stigma and inequality regarding gender/sex, gender identity, and sexuality.
Discussion and Conclusions
We conclude with guidelines and methodological suggestions for how to engage gender/sex and gender identity in research. Our goal is to contribute a framework that all human biologists can use, not just those who work with gender or sexually diverse populations. We hope that in bringing this perspective to bear in human biology, which novel ideas and applications will emerge from within our own discipline.
Levels of sex differences for human body size and shape phenotypes are hypothesized to have adaptively reduced following the agricultural transition as part of an evolutionary response to relatively more equal divisions of labor and new technology adoption. In this study, we tested this hypothesis by studying genetic variants associated with five sexually differentiated human phenotypes: height, body mass, hip circumference, body fat percentage, and waist circumference. We first analyzed genome-wide association (GWAS) results for UK Biobank individuals (~194,000 females and ~167,000 males) to identify a total of 114,199 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly associated with at least one of the studied phenotypes in females, males, or both sexes (P<5x10⁻⁸). From these loci we then identified 3,016 SNPs (2.6%) with significant differences in the strength of association between the female- and male-specific GWAS results at a low false-discovery rate (FDR<0.001). Genes with known roles in sexual differentiation are significantly enriched for co-localization with one or more of these SNPs versus SNPs associated with the phenotypes generally but not with sex differences (2.73-fold enrichment; permutation test; P = 0.0041). We also confirmed that the identified variants are disproportionately associated with greater phenotype effect sizes in the sex with the stronger association value. We then used the singleton density score statistic, which quantifies recent (within the last ~3,000 years; post-agriculture adoption in Britain) changes in the frequencies of alleles underlying polygenic traits, to identify a signature of recent positive selection on alleles associated with greater body fat percentage in females (permutation test; P = 0.0038; FDR = 0.0380), directionally opposite to that predicted by the sex differences reduction hypothesis. Otherwise, we found no evidence of positive selection for sex difference-associated alleles for any other trait. Overall, our results challenge the longstanding hypothesis that sex differences adaptively decreased following subsistence transitions from hunting and gathering to agriculture.
The work of archaeozoologists and molecular geneticists suggests that the domestication of the wolf (Canis lupus)—the ancestor of the domestic dog (C. familiaris)—probably occurred somewhere between 40,000 and 15,000 years ago somewhere on the Eurasian continent, perhaps in more than one location. Wolf domestication was therefore underway many millennia before the origins of agriculture and the domestication of food animals, such as sheep and goats. Currently, there are two predominant “origin stories” concerning the domestication of the wolf. The dominant narrative in recent literature is the commensal scavenger hypothesis which posits that wolves essentially domesticated themselves by invading ancient human settlements in search of animal remains and other edible waste discarded by hunter-gatherers. Over time, tolerance by humans gave a selective advantage to the bolder, less fearful wolves, which then diverged from the ancestral population as they adapted to the new scavenging niche. At some point in the process, humans also began to recognize the benefits of living with resident, semi-domestic wolves, either as guards or as hunting partners, thereby cementing the relationship. The alternative account of wolf domestication is very different. Sometimes known as the pet keeping or cross-species adoption hypothesis, this narrative draws heavily on anthropological observations of pet keeping among recent hunter-gatherers, and postulates that Paleolithic peoples were similarly inclined to capture, adopt and rear infant mammals, such as wolf pups, and that this habitual human nurturing behavior ultimately provided the basis for the evolution of a cooperative social system involving both species. This review critically examines and analyzes these two distinct domestication narratives and explores the underlying and sometimes erroneous assumptions they make about wolves, Pleistocene humans, and the original relationships that existed between the two species. The paper concludes that the commensal scavenger hypothesis is untenable based on what is known about recent and ancient hunter-gatherer societies, and that wolf domestication was predicated on the establishment of cooperative social relations between humans and wolves based on the early socialization of wolf pups.
This work demonstrates the importance of integrating sexual division of labour into the research of the transition to the Neolithic and its social implications. During the spread of the Neolithic in Europe, when migration led to the dispersal of domesticated plants and animals, novel tasks and tools, appear in the archaeological record. By examining the use-wear traces from over 400 stone tools from funerary contexts of the earliest Neolithic in central Europe we provide insights into what tasks could have been carried out by women and men. The results of this analysis are then examined for statistically significant correlations with the osteological, isotopic and other grave good data, informing on sexed-based differences in diet, mobility and symbolism. Our data demonstrate males were buried with stone tools used for woodwork, and butchery, hunting or interpersonal violence, while women with those for the working of animal skins, expanding the range of tasks known to have been carried out. The results also show variation along an east-west cline from Slovakia to eastern France, suggesting that the sexual division of labour (or at least its representation in death) changed as farming spread westwards.
Sexual division of labor with females as gatherers and males as hunters is a major empirical regularity of hunter-gatherer ethnography, suggesting an ancestral behavioral pattern. We present an archeological discovery and meta-analysis that challenge the man-the-hunter hypothesis. Excavations at the Andean highland site of Wilamaya Patjxa reveal a 9000-year-old human burial (WMP6) associated with a hunting toolkit of stone projectile points and animal processing tools. Osteological, proteomic, and isotopic analyses indicate that this early hunter was a young adult female who subsisted on terrestrial plants and animals. Analysis of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene burial practices throughout the Americas situate WMP6 as the earliest and most secure hunter burial in a sample that includes 10 other females in statistical parity with early male hunter burials. The findings are consistent with nongendered labor practices in which early hunter-gatherer females were big-game hunters.
Humans seem to have an adaptive predisposition for inventing, telling and consuming stories¹. Prehistoric cave art provides the most direct insight that we have into the earliest storytelling2–5, in the form of narrative compositions or ‘scenes’2,5 that feature clear figurative depictions of sets of figures in spatial proximity to each other, and from which one can infer actions taking place among the figures⁵. The Upper Palaeolithic cave art of Europe hosts the oldest previously known images of humans and animals interacting in recognizable scenes2,5, and of therianthropes6,7—abstract beings that combine qualities of both people and animals, and which arguably communicated narrative fiction of some kind (folklore, religious myths, spiritual beliefs and so on). In this record of creative expression (spanning from about 40 thousand years ago (ka) until the beginning of the Holocene epoch at around 10 ka), scenes in cave art are generally rare and chronologically late (dating to about 21–14 ka)⁷, and clear representations of therianthropes are uncommon⁶—the oldest such image is a carved figurine from Germany of a human with a feline head (dated to about 40–39 ka)⁸. Here we describe an elaborate rock art panel from the limestone cave of Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 (Sulawesi, Indonesia) that portrays several figures that appear to represent therianthropes hunting wild pigs and dwarf bovids; this painting has been dated to at least 43.9 ka on the basis of uranium-series analysis of overlying speleothems. This hunting scene is—to our knowledge—currently the oldest pictorial record of storytelling and the earliest figurative artwork in the world.
This chapter provides a critical analysis of the evidence for technical activity specialization in the European Upper Paleolithic by sex. It reviews the arguments based on the kind of evidence researchers are likely to collect (e.g., direct, indirect, and analogical). Some hypotheses are based on suppositions generated by ethnographic comparisons, while others rely on direct or indirect indices (task diversification, activity zone locations, skill level identification, diversity of grave goods, and body evidence like handprints and skeletons). The aim of this chapter is to show that there was a reasoned distribution of activities within groups, accompanied by an emerging social hierarchy, but that it is very difficult to account exactly for what women and men did. And even if we suspect that some tasks were respectively performed by males or females, it is possible that there was also a certain amount of technical specialization that was not related to gender.
The appearance of weaponry - technology designed to kill - is a critical but poorly established threshold in human evolution. It is an important behavioural marker representing evolutionary changes in ecology, cognition, language and social behaviours. While the earliest weapons are often considered to be hand-held and consequently short-ranged, the subsequent appearance of distance weapons is a crucial development. Projectiles are seen as an improvement over contact weapons, and are considered by some to have originated only with our own species in the Middle Stone Age and Upper Palaeolithic. Despite the importance of distance weapons in the emergence of full behavioral modernity, systematic experimentation using trained throwers to evaluate the ballistics of thrown spears during flight and at impact is lacking. This paper addresses this by presenting results from a trial of trained javelin athletes, providing new estimates for key performance parameters. Overlaps in distances and impact energies between hand-thrown spears and spearthrowers are evidenced, and skill emerges as a significant factor in successful use. The results show that distance hunting was likely within the repertoire of hunting strategies of Neanderthals, and the resulting behavioural flexibility closely mirrors that of our own species.
The intensification of agriculture is often associated with declining mobility and bone strength through time, although women often exhibit less pronounced trends than men. For example, previous studies of prehistoric Central European agriculturalists (~5300 calibrated years BC to 850 AD) demonstrated a significant reduction in tibial rigidity among men, whereas women were characterized by low tibial rigidity, little temporal change, and high variability. Because of the potential for sex-specific skeletal responses to mechanical loading and a lack of modern comparative data, women's activity in prehistory remains difficult to interpret. This study compares humeral and tibial cross-sectional rigidity, shape, and interlimb loading among prehistoric Central European women agriculturalists and living European women of known behavior (athletes and controls). Prehistoric female tibial rigidity at all time periods was highly variable, but differed little from living sedentary women on average, and was significantly lower than that of living runners and football players. However, humeral rigidity exceeded that of living athletes for the first ~5500 years of farming, with loading intensity biased heavily toward the upper limb. Interlimb strength proportions among Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age women were most similar to those of living semi-elite rowers. These results suggest that, in contrast to men, rigorous manual labor was a more important component of prehistoric women's behavior than was terrestrial mobility through thousands of years of European agriculture, at levels far exceeding those of modern women.
How early human groups were organized
Sequencing ancient hominid remains has provided insights into the relatedness between individuals. However, it is not clear whether ancient humans bred among close relatives, as is common in some modern human cultures. Sikora et al. report genome sequences from four early humans buried close together in western Russia about 34,000 years ago (see the Perspective by Bergström and Tyler-Smith). The individuals clustered together genetically and came from a population with a small effective size, but they were not very closely related. Thus, these people may represent a single social group that was part of a larger mating network, similar to contemporary hunter-gatherers. The lack of close inbreeding might help to explain the survival advantage of anatomically modern humans.
Science , this issue p. 659 ; see also p. 586
Im Rahmen eines Forschungsprojektes der Prähistorischen Kommission der
Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften! werden seit 2005 amWachtberg
in Krems (Niederösterreich) gravettienzeitliche Siedlungsschichten ausgegraben. Dabei konnte eine bis 10 Zentimeter mächtige Kulturschicht
dokumentiert werden, die ein umfangreiches Fauna- und Steingeräteinventar
erbrachte. Diese als archäologischer Horizont 4 (AH 4) bezeichnete Fundschicht
datiert aufrund 26500 Radiokarbonjahre vor heute und ist techno- und
typologisch dem Gravettien zuzurechnen.
Many evolutionary arguments fossilize a human division of labor as one of man the hunter, and woman the gatherer, with differences in labor arising out of the effectiveness of efficiency. We suggest here that arguments based solely on the efficiency of labor specialization among heterosexual married pairs over-generalize divisions of labor that are, in reality, much more diverse. Divisions of labor can be based on age, as well as on gender, and are not limited solely to monogamous marital pairs. Divisions of gender take the form more generally not of meat and vegetables, but of the acquisition of high and low variance foods. Some differences in labor may be the result of conflicting interests, others emerging from common goals, and still others from the power of patriarchy. Differences in labor patterns may not be designed solely, or even primarily, to provision children, but may also be shaped by the social goals of both sexes.
Rock Art Studies in IndiaDistribution of SitesProblematizing Indian Rock Art ResearchCase Studies from Southern IndiaConclusions
References
n an attempt to introduce concerns with social identities into the discussion and understanding of the making of what we call Paleolithic art, this article considers issues of gender, skill, apprenticeship, and tradition. We note that, as in every period of history, Paleolithic art can be seen as embedded in the society that studies it. Over the last 20 years, the research attention given to women in Paleolithic societies has grown considerably, leading us to ask what could have been the roles of women in Paleolithic art. On what criteria could we base a determination of those roles or of other social identities that were likely part of the making and viewing of Paleolithic art?
Thanks to our microscopic analysis of engravings, it is possible to identify the skill level and expertise of the artists and thus to address the question of apprenticeship and how these techniques were transmitted. We observe many similarities that allow us to group together various works of art, sometimes from very distant sites, which indicate a movement of ideas, objects, and people. Are we talking about “imitation”? How can we define an “invention” within a social context strongly bound by traditions?
Objectives:
This study compares humeral diaphyseal robusticity and asymmetry between Late Holocene hunter-gatherers from Alaska with the goal of reconstructing habitual activity in relation to culture and environment.
Materials and methods:
Ancestral remains from four geographic regions of Alaska were divided into five site groups defined by subsistence strategies and technology: Aleutian Islands, Coastal Bay, Far North Coastal, Inland/Riverine, and Tikeraq. Mid-distal humeral diaphyseal robusticity was quantified using cross-sectional geometric properties standardized by estimated body mass and bone length.
Results:
Humeral strength and bilateral asymmetry were greatest in Aleutian Island males, moderate in Far North Coastal and Tikeraq males, and reduced in Inland/Riverine males. Left-biased directional asymmetry and reduced humeral strength were found in Coastal Bay males. Aleutian Island males had relatively mediolaterally strengthened humeri compared with other groups. Aleutian Island females had elevated humeral strength, while humeral asymmetry among females was moderate and did not vary between groups. Humeri were relatively round among Aleutian Island and Tikeraq females and anteroposteriorly (A-P) strengthened among Coastal Bay, Far North Coastal, and Inland/Riverine females.
Conclusions:
These results suggest elevated humeral strength and asymmetry in males that engaged in rowing and unimanual projectile hunting, while reduced humeral strength and asymmetry may reflect bow-and-arrow or ensnarement technologies. Left-biased humeral asymmetry may be associated with net-fishing. Humeral strength and asymmetry are consistent with select instances of unimanual projectile hunting in females, while differences in humeral A-P/mediolateral strength may reflect variation in butchery and processing of prey versus rowing and throwing behaviors.
Evidence for plants rarely survives on Paleolithic sites, while animal bones and biomolecular analyses suggest animal produce was important to hominin populations, leading to the perspective that Neanderthals had a very-high-protein diet. But although individual and short-term survival is possible on a relatively low-carbohydrate diet, populations are unlikely to have thrived and reproduced without plants and the carbohydrates they provide. Today, nutritional guidelines recommend that around half the diet should be carbohydrate, while low intake is considered to compromise physical performance and successful reproduction. This is likely to have been the same for Paleolithic populations, highlighting an anomaly in that the basic physiological recommendations do not match the extensive archaeological evidence. Neanderthals had large, energy-expensive brains and led physically active lifestyles, suggesting that for optimal health they would have required high amounts of carbohydrates. To address this anomaly, we begin by outlining the essential role of carbohydrates in the human reproduction cycle and the brain and the effects on physical performance. We then evaluate the evidence for resource availability and the archaeological evidence for Neanderthal diet and investigate three ways that the anomaly between the archaeological evidence and the hypothetical dietary requirements might be explained. First, Neanderthals may have had an as yet unidentified genetic adaptation to an alternative physiological method to spare blood glucose and glycogen reserves for essential purposes. Second, they may have existed on a less-than-optimum diet and survived rather than thrived. Third, the methods used in dietary reconstruction could mask a complex combination of dietary plant and animal proportions. We end by proposing that analyses of Paleolithic diet and subsistence strategies need to be grounded in the minimum recommendations throughout the life course and that this provides a context for interpretation of the archaeological evidence from the behavioral and environmental perspectives.
A large body of work focuses on the unique aspects of Neanderthal anatomy, inferred physiology, and behavior to test the assumption that Neanderthals were hyper‐adapted to living in cold environments. This research has expanded over the years to include previously unexplored and potentially adaptive features such as brown adipose tissue and fire‐usage. Here we review the current state of knowledge of Neanderthal cold adaptations along morphological, physiological, and behavioral lines. While highlighting foundational as well as recent work, we also emphasize key areas for future research. Despite thriving in a variety of climates, it is well‐accepted that Neanderthals appear to be the most cold‐adapted of known fossil hominin groups; however, there are still many unknowns. There is a great deal yet to be uncovered about the nature and manifestation of Neanderthal adaptation and how the synergy of biology and culture helped buffer them against extreme and variable environments.
Entomophagy, or the act of eating insects, has been practiced since ancient times, but it started to gain more popularity, especially in Western countries, only recently. As sustainability is one of the current emerging themes, the inclusion of insects in our diet is a valid alternative that might help reduce the amount of water and land used for livestock and the associated emissions of greenhouse gasses. Moreover, insects are a source of protein, fibres, vitamins, minerals and fats. Edible insects are considered a novel food, for which no isotopic reference values are yet available. In the present work, samples of farmed edible insects (n=40) belonging to different orders (namely, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Odonata and Orthoptera) and insect-based food items (n=4) for human consumption were analysed. The following isotopes, δ ¹³ C, δ ¹⁵ N, δ ³⁴ S, δ ¹⁸ O and δ ² H of the defatted samples, together with the δ ¹³ C of the fat, were investigated. The aim of the work was to provide the first reference isotopic ratios that can be used for future investigations in the food quality field. The variability of these parameters was dependent on the life stage and diet of insects, their geographical origin, and the addition of ingredients as seasoning.
Kindred is the definitive guide to the Neanderthals. Since their discovery over 160 years ago, they've metamorphosed from the losers of the human family tree to A-list hominins. While 21st century scientific understanding of Neanderthals is complex and fascinating, much remains inaccessible outside the specialist literature.
In Kindred, Rebecca Wragg Sykes uses her first-hand experience at the cutting-edge of Palaeolithic research to share this knowledge, shoving aside clichés of rag-clad brutes in an icy wasteland. She reveals the Neanderthals as curious, clever connoisseurs of their world, technologically inventive and ecologically adaptable. They ranged across vast tracts of tundra and steppe, but also stalked in dappled forests and waded in the Mediterranean Sea. Above all, they were successful: survivors of over 300,000 years of massive climate change.
At a time when our species has never faced greater threats, we're obsessed with what makes us special. Only one kind of human walks Earth today, but histories of our dominance and success aren't the whole truth: many of our pioneering forebears are, in genetic terms, even more extinct than Neanderthals. Moreover, much of what's claimed to define us was also in Neanderthals, our closest relatives, whose DNA is still inside us. Planning, co-operation, altruism, craftsmanship, aesthetic sense, imagination... perhaps even a desire for transcendence beyond mortality.
Evaluating Evidence in Biological Anthropology - edited by Cathy Willermet November 2019
The Sexual Politics of Meat is Carol Adams’ inspiring and controversial exploration of the interplay between contemporary society’s ingrained cultural misogyny and its obsession with meat and masculinity. First published in 1990, the book has continued to change the lives of tens of thousands of readers into the second decade of the 21st century.
Published in the year of the book’s 25th anniversary, the Bloomsbury Revelations edition includes a substantial new afterword, including more than 20 new images and discussions of recent events that prove beyond doubt the continuing relevance of Adams’ revolutionary book.
Objectives: Reconstruction of the activity of past human populations can be carried out using various skeletal markers; however, the relationship between these methods is not fully understood. Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between entheseal changes, cross-sectional properties, and variability in the shape of the upper limb.
Materials and methods: The analysed material consisted of CT images of 71 right scapulae, humeri, and ulnae belonging to the same individuals from a mediaeval population located in Poland. For each series of bones for the same individual, skeletal markers such as: cross-sectional properties, entheses and shape variation were assessed. Next, correlations between these three skeletal indicators were calculated.
Results: In general, the models showed that only sex influences entheses. Multivariate regression revealed significant correlation only between ulnar auricular surface shape and two types of mean score for entheses.
Discussion: The findings are inconsistent and stand in contradiction to other research; therefore, we suggest that an assessment of individual activity should be carried out, using as many post-cranial elements as possible and a variety of methods. This approach will ensure more accurate reconstruction of the activity levels and patterns of archaeological groups.
Significance
The patterns and incidences of developmental abnormalities and anomalies through Pleistocene human evolution may provide insights into issues of survival, stress, consanguinity, and mortuary behavior among these foraging populations. A synthesis of these developmental variants through the Homo fossil record provides 75 cases from 66 individuals, an exceptional total given the small paleontological samples. These are primarily from the past 200,000 years, given better preservation through burial, but are known from up to 1.5 million years ago. One-third of them have moderately low probabilities ( P < 0.05), yet 14% are very rare ( P < 0.0001), and 19% have no known etiology. No single factor accounts for the extremely low cumulative probability of finding these abnormalities, but this raises questions concerning the natures of Pleistocene human populations.
In the last 20 years, demography has re-emerged as a key research area within archaeology. This research has refined archaeological demographic methods and examined the relationships between demographic, cultural and environmental change. Here, I discuss how the results of the growing corpus of archaeological demographic studies can contribute to gender archaeology, aiding the incorporation of women into narratives of the past. By considering the important role of women in the demographic regimes of small-scale societies, I explain how archaeological demography can provide insights into the behaviour and lives of women, without relying on the often problematic identification of gendered artefacts, activities and/or places. Archaeological demography as a tool for gender archaeology also permits a move away from the female empiricism of simply adding women into archaeological narratives, to provide an alternative framework for the analysis of gender roles and practices. I demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of this approach using an example from the Upper Palaeolithic of southwestern France.
The Legacy of the Past Genderlithics Revisited Lithic Analysis as Practice Reconfiguring Perspectives Set in Stone Conclusions References
The close association of the advent of tool behaviours with changes to the upper limb morphology of fossil hominins has lead researchers to hypothesise that stone tool manufacture and use represents an important selective pressure for the upper limb, and yet the makers of the first stone tools, the Oldowan technological complex, remain obscure. Entheseal complexity studies have suggested that morphological changes to muscle attachment sites might be a fruitful means to investigate activity patterns in past populations. The aims of this study were therefore two-fold. First, upper limb kinetics, kinematics, and normal activation patterns of 15 shoulder and elbow muscles were investigated using electromyography (EMG) in 16 novices during Oldowan stone knapping to identify which muscles were highly and regularly recruited during this behaviour. Second, upper limb entheses in 10 species of fossil hominin were analysed using fractal analysis to score entheseal complexity. These results were then compared with the EMG analysis to determine whether patterns of entheseal complexity mirror muscle recruitment patterns in living subjects. If so, it may be possible to identify who made the first stone tools. The results of the biomechanical study indicate that the motion of the knapping arm in stone tool manufacture is a dynamic three-dimensional flexion-extension motion. The shoulder and elbow musculature is active primarily to produce acceleration of the arm segments to generate the strike force. The segments of the upper limb moved in a coordinated proximal-to-distal sequence. This motion originated with the shoulder proximally in the up-swing or “cocking” phase and was transmitted through to the distal limb segments (the wrist and hammerstone) in the down-swing phase. The principle strike force-generating muscles of the down-swing are Mm. latissimus dorsi, teres major, and triceps brachii. M. pectoralis major works during this phase to decelerate the rapidly extending arm to improve strike accuracy. The wrist flexor and extensor musculature, rather than producing specific motion of the wrist, appears to be highly recruited to stabilise the elbow and wrist against reactive forces from hammerstone impact. The entheseal complexity analysis indicates that potential members of the tool-making guild include Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus anamensis, Paranthropus robustus, Homo habilis, and Homo ergaster. While patterns of entheseal complexity in the fossil hominin upper limb do indeed mirror muscle recruitment patterns during stone knapping, the data is nonetheless equivocal as morphological evidence in at least two candidate species (one of which occurs 1.5 Ma prior to the first evidence of the Oldowan technological complex) suggests strong commitment to arboreality, calling into question the efficacy of entheseal complexity studies for identifying activity patterns in fossil hominins.
Human humeral diaphyseal asymmetry in midshaft and mid-distal rigidity is assessed through the Late Pleistocene in samples of late archaic (Neandertal) and early modern humans. It is considered with respect to directionality (handedness), levels of asymmetry, body size and sexual differences. The overall Late Pleistocene sample indicates a right-handed preference in frequencies (right: 74.8%, left: 15.0%, ambiguous: 10.3%), which are similar to those of recent human samples. Average levels of humeral asymmetry are elevated relative to Holocene samples through all but the small Middle Paleolithic modern human and eastern Eurasian late Upper Paleolithic samples. Humeral asymmetry is especially high among the males relative to the females, and the possibility of a division of labor between uni-manual tasks (mostly male) and bi-manual tasks (mostly female) is considered. At the same time, there is a general pattern of increased asymmetry with larger body size, but it remains unclear to what extent it reflects body size versus sexual effects on bilateral humeral loading. There do not appear to have been substantial changes in humeral asymmetry through time, indicating a continuity of similar manual behavioral patterns through the Late Pleistocene, despite considerable changes in technology through the Late Pleistocene.
Fungi are a common part of modern human diets, but are rarely discussed in an archaeological context. Power et al. (2015) published data on bolete spores in human tooth calculus, suggesting that Upper Palaeolithic peoples ate mushrooms. Here we briefly consider the likelihood of mushroom consumption in the past, and examine whether or not stable isotopes may provide a way of seeing this in archaeological populations. We also consider the complexities of fungal stable isotopes using our own data and that from the literature. We conclude that fungi are highly variable isotopically, and are an additional dietary factor that should be considered when trying to interpret ‘terrestrial’ carbon isotope signatures combined with relatively high nitrogen isotope values in humans and other animals. Substantial mushroom ingestion could, in some cases, result in isotope values that may be interpreted as considerable meat consumption.
It is by identifying a set of activities in a set of spaces that one gets access to huntergatherers domesticity, as argued in the introduction. The previous chapters on Verberie in his volume answer decisive questions about the organization of several activities: hunting, animal food consuming and curing, and the places where they were performed (J. G. Enloe), the organization of flint knapping and lithic tools production, the flint workshops and refuse areas and their makers (F. Janny), and the manufacture of antler and ivry implements (A. Averbouh). D. Keeler gives an overview of the Verberie spatial organization using the GIS methods. The following chapter, which focuses on the spatial organization of the upper level, combines their results to apply them to the set of spaces that make up the domestic space. It introduces a diachronic dimension to the activities, made possible by the flint refits of F. Janny and the stones block refits of M. Caron. It uses a microwear database of flint tools and artifacts that inform us about the actions performed and the raw materials on which they worked. This database includes the results achieved by L. H. Keeley on 1, 200 artifacts plus the results more recently obtained by Valérie Beugnier, Sylvie Beyries, and Veerle Rots on scrapers, becs, and burins. It allows reconstruction of a system of activities, components of which are plotted on the set of spaces that compose the upper level living floor. Intrinsic results are then combined with information derived from comparative research (Binford 1978, 1983, 2001; Keeley this volume; David and Karlin this volume; Beyries and Rots this volume) in order to illuminate the nature of the social organization of the group that settled at Verberie, the characteristics of domesticity there, and its relationto the household.
Both bi-iliac breadth and stature are considered key aspects of “body shape,” vary ecogeographically, and have been proposed to influence femoral midshaft shape, complicating interpretations of “activity.” This chapter explores patterns of variation in cross-sectional geometry [especially shape, as measured by I
max/I
min or midshaft anteroposterior (AP) and mediolateral (ML) diameters] in the femur and tibia using three data sets that comprise a large amount of external measurements and some data from cross-sectional geometry. These data show that the midshaft shapes of the femur and tibia are only weakly correlated: r = −0.12 for AP/ML diameters; r = 0.33 for I
max/I
min ratios. Femoral midshaft shape is weakly, but significantly, associated with bi-iliac breadth and the ratio of bi-iliac breadth to femoral length in some, but not all, data sets. The results indicate that variation in “body shape” does not drive the low correlations observed between femoral and tibial midshaft shapes. We should look to other factors to explain the mismatch.
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The role of men in hunter‐gatherer societies has been subject to vigorous debate over the past 15 years. The proposal that men hunt wild game as a form of status signaling or “showing off” to provide reproductive benefits to the hunter challenges the traditional view that men hunt to provision their families. Two broad assumptions underlie the signaling view: (1) hunting is a poor means of obtaining food, and (2) hunted game is a public good shared widely with others and without expectation of future reciprocation. If hunters lack the ability to direct food shares and obtain subsequent benefits contingent on redistribution, then the ubiquitous observations of male hunting and universal pair‐bonding cannot be explained from a perspective that emphasizes kin provisioning and a division of labor. Here we show that there is little empirical support for the view that men hunt for signaling benefits alone. The ethnographic record depicts a more complex relationship between food sharing patterns, subsistence strategies, mating, and the sexual division of labor. We present a framework incorporating trade‐offs between mating and subsistence strategies in an economic bargaining context that contributes to understanding men’s and women’s roles in hunter‐gatherer societies.
The transition from foraging to farming is associated with a widespread and well-documented decline in oral health, wherein women experience a more rapid and dramatic decline than men. Historically, anthropologists have attributed this difference to behavioral factors such as sexual division of labor and gender-based dietary preferences. However, the clinical and epidemiological literature on caries prevalence reveals a ubiquitous pattern of worse oral heath among women than men. Research on cariogenesis shows that women's higher caries rates are influenced by changes in female sex hormones, the biochemical composition and flow rate of saliva, and food cravings and aversions during pregnancy. Significantly, the adoption of agriculture is associated with increased sedentism and fertility. I argue that the impact of dietary change on women's oral health was intensified by the increased demands on women's reproductive systems, including the increase in fertility, that accompanied the rise of agriculture and that these factors contribute to the observed gender differential in dental caries.
Black feminist theory has been employed in North American historical archaeology, but has not made inroads in other areas of archaeology. This article describes how Black feminist theory may be used to address the sociopolitics of archaeological practice as well as how it may be applied to the study of prehistory. Suggestions for improving the climate for minority researchers are provided, and a brief example is given demonstrating how taking a Black feminist standpoint provides a different way to look at interactions between Neandertals and anatomically modern humans in Pleistocene Europe. Résumé Les théories du féminisme Noir ont été utilisées dans l’archéologie historique d’Amérique du Nord, mais ils n’ont pas franchis autres sujets en archéologie. Cet article décrit comment le féminisme Noir peut être utilisé pour affronter le politique social des pratiques de l’archéologie et comment on peut appliquer ces théories à l’étude de la préhistoire. Je suggère des moyens pour améliorer le climat du travail pour les chercheurs minoritaires, et un exemple bref qui montre comment un point de vue féministe Noire donne une autre vue sur les interactions entre les Néandertaliens et les humains modernes dans le Pléistocène de l’Europe. Resumen La teoría feminista Negra ha sido utilizada en la arqueología histórica norteamericana, pero no ha hecho incursiones en otras áreas de la arqueología. El presente artículo describe cómo la teoría feminista Negra puede ser utilizada para abordar la sociopolítica de la práctica arqueológica y también cómo puede ser aplicada al estudio de la prehistoria. Se proporcionan sugerencias para mejorar las condiciones de los investigadores de minorías, y se ofrece un breve ejemplo que demuestra cómo el asumir un punto de vista feminista Negro proporciona una forma diferente de ver las interacciones entre los neandertales y los humanos anatómicamente modernos en la Europa del Pleistoceno.