Finds in Peru contradict the assumption that hunting has always been a “natural” domain of men: 9000 years ago a woman was buried there with tools for hunting big game. Further study results also suggest that the hunter was probably not an isolated case: The researchers report archaeological evidence from South and North America that suggest that more than a third of the large game hunters of the late Pleistocene and early Holocene could have been female.
In hunter and gatherer cultures there have always been typical tasks for the sexes, one might think: the women provided the groups with berries, roots and the like, while the men brought in the hunted prey. This conclusion is obvious, because this division is known from younger hunter and gatherer cultures and also in today’s western culture, hunting is a typical man’s business. Whether this has always been the case or has only emerged as a result of cultural developments, however, is questionable: It is generally disputed among scientists to what extent there was such a clear gender-specific division of labor in the early human communities.
According to this, the activities of the members of the groups could also have been determined more by the individual abilities, which are known to show a considerable range of variation in men and women. In order to ensure a large harvest, all capable group members could have been involved in the communal hunting activities. As the researchers working with Randall Haas from the University of California at Davis report, there was already archaeological evidence that the women of the early inhabitants of the American double continent could have been hunters. Your current research results now round off these indications to a clear overall picture.
Hunting tools in a woman’s grave
The researchers are focusing on a discovery from the Wilamaya Patjxa site in the highlands of Peru. It is a grave that was dated to an age of 9,000 years. In addition to a skeleton, it contained additions that the research team clearly interpreted as hunting tools. In addition to sharp stone objects, which were probably used to cut up animal carcasses, these were bullet points. According to the researchers, they once sat on spears that were thrown and were typically used to hunt big game at that time.
As the researchers explain, archeology generally assumes that grave goods are items that the deceased individual used during their lifetime. In the case of Wilamaya Patjxa’s tomb, the characteristics of the bones suggested that it was a 17 to 19-year-old woman. A sex determination based on protein material from the teeth was then able to confirm this suspicion. In addition, an isotope analysis on the remains showed that the woman’s diet was based heavily on meat. According to the researchers, based on the findings, it can be assumed that the woman herself hunted around 9,000 years ago.
A broader pattern is emerging
But was this perhaps just a special case or was it more common back then that women also hunted? To investigate this question, the scientists also re-examined earlier findings. They recorded information on 429 grave finds from 107 archaeological sites throughout North and South America from the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. As they report, in some cases there was evidence of hunting tools as grave goods. Some of them also had gender assignments. The scientists came to the conclusion: Of the individuals associated with big game hunting tools, 15 were male and 11 were female.
So far, the latter cases have hardly been seen as clear indications of hunters, explain the researchers. “Our results have led me to rethink my assumptions about basic organizational structures in the old hunter-gatherer communities and human groups in general,” says Haas. “Among historical and contemporary hunters and gatherers, it is almost always the case that the men are the hunters and the women are the gatherers. For this reason – and probably also because of stereotypical assumptions – archaeological finds of women with hunting tools simply did not fit into the prevailing worldview. We are now providing strong arguments that the archaeological pattern indicates the actual hunting behavior of women, ”Haas sums up.
Source: University of California, Article: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126 / sciadv.abd0310N