User:NotArmandoG/Hunting hypothesis

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Women are theorized to have participated in hunting, either on their own or as a collective group effort. It's suggested that in the past, women targeted low but guaranteed food, whereas men targeted higher risk higher reward food. The Gathering Hypothesis is a view that states men provided the evolution of the current human through hunting while women contributed via gathering. Though it's been criticized by many, it provides clues that both hunting and gathering were patterns of acquiring food and resources.

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Sexual division of labor (evolutionary perspective)

According to the hunting hypothesis, women are preoccupied with pregnancy and dependent children so do not hunt because it is dangerous and less profitable. In addition, subsistence labor differentiates as observations suggests gender patterns originate from genetic traits. Another possible explanation for women gathering is their inherent prioritization of rearing offspring, which is difficult to uphold if women were hunting. Hunting is seen as more cost effective for men than for women. The division of labor allows both types of resources (animals and plants) to be utilized. Individual or small group hunting requires patience and skill more than strength, so women are just as capable as men. Plant collecting can be a physically demanding task so strength, endurance, or patience does not explain why women do not regularly hunt large game. Since women hunt while menstruating, and if a child is still being breastfed, the mother may take him or her along in a shoulder sling while hunting or gathering. Women hunt when it is compatible with children, and this usually means communal net hunts and/or hunting small game, and if childcare prevents a woman from hunting when young, the expertise to be an effective hunter later on may not be acquired.

Women's involvement in the Hunting Hypothesis

Though the hunting hypothesis is still being debated today, many experts have theorized the impact that women had concerning their involvement with hunter-gatherers being primarily males, was much larger than previously thought. Women in foraging societies do hunt small game regularly and, occasionally, large game. The majority of human's evolutionary history consisted of being hunter-gatherers as such women evolved the necessary traits needed for hunting such as endurance, movement coordination, and athleticism. Hunting big game requires a collaborative effort, thus participation from all abled-bodies was encouraged which included females. In addition, Atlatl or Spear-thrower's required more energy to be utilized so contributions from everyone, including females, would've contributed with mitigating the energy exerted to use Atlatl's. Such examples consist of the Martu women in western Australia, for example, who frequently hunt goannas and skink. Women also participate in communal game drives and can have extensive land knowledge as well, which they use to assist their husbands in hunting. Kelly Robert's example consists of 6 Agta women who are hunters and returned home with a kill 31 percent of the time, whereas men averaged 17 percent. The women's expertise with hunting was further shown with mixed groups of male and female hunters being the most successful, coming home with kills 41 percent of the time. Agta females who have reached the end of their childbearing years, those with children old enough to look after themselves in camp, or those who are sterile are the ones who intentionally hunt. It's noted that women target reliable but low-return-rate foods, whereas men target less reliable but high-return-rate foods. This could be an explanation as to why women weren't commonly documented as hunters.

The Gathering Hypothesis

The Gathering Hypothesis is the view that men provided critical evolutionary propulsion of the modern human through hunting, whereas women contributed via gathering. In addition, it helps provide for the fact that our ancestor's diets consisted mostly of plant food. It's suggested by David Buss that stone tools were invented not strictly for hunting, but for gathering plants and used for digging them up. This could explain the migration from forests to woodlands as tools allowed easy access to previously used methods. As such, this view results in the hunting part of the modern human coming much later. Though women weren't strictly hunters, a woman's time investment in foraging depended on how much food her husband brought back. Gathering plant foods allows a person to return to camp when necessary, but hunting may require an overnight stay so as to continue tracking the animal in the morning.

The Gathering Hypothesis Controversy

The Gathering Hypothesis has been criticized by those who believe it's incapable of explaining our human origins in the primate lineage. A common argument against the Gathering hypothesis is if gathering was the best or most efficient method of acquiring food, then why wouldn’t men just gather and stop wasting their time hunting. The division of labor among men and woman is unaccounted for throughout cultures. Hunting often takes the hunter far away from the home base, selection would favor hunters who could find their way home without getting lost along the way. Locating and gathering edible nuts, berries, fruit, and tubers would require a different set of spatial skills. The high prevalence of male hunters and female gatherers among traditional societies, although not conclusive evidence, provides one more clue that both activities are part of the human pattern of procuring food.