Seattle-Pacific University Researchers Discover Women Actively Took Part in Prehistoric Hunts

Prehistoric hunters included both men and womenPhoto byWikimedia

A recent study led by researchers from the Seattle Pacific University has challenged the long-standing belief that men were the primary hunters while women focused on gathering in hunter-gatherer societies.

Researchers analyzed data from academic papers spanning a century, investigating 63 hunter-gatherer communities and the burials of female hunters across different continents.

Surprisingly, the study found that women played a crucial role in hunting in 79% of the communities studied, and this did not change after they became mothers.

Study co-author and professor of biology at the Seattle Pacific University, Cara Wall-Scheffler was amazed by the findings. Her team debunked the idea that there was an explicit taboo against women participating in hunting activities.

The women would go out with many different tools — they had a very diverse tool kit all around the world — and if they saw an animal, they would kill it. We were surprised by how the majority of groups showed women hunting, and there was no explicit taboo against that- Cara Wall-Scheffler, co-chair, Biology, Seattle Pacific University

The study also revealed that female hunting expeditions were intentional in over 70% of cases. Women actively sought out and killed animals, using a diverse range of tools. The entire community recognized and valued their hunting contributions, highlighting the importance of their role.

Women were not limited to hunting small game. They were just as skilled as men in hunting larger animals. In the Americas, women accounted for about half of the hunters targeting big-game species such as deer and moose.

We reanalyzed the big-game burials from North and South America (in which people were buried with tools or animal bones), and prehistorically showed that women and men were 50/50 big-game hunters-Cara Wall-Scheffler, co-chair, Biology, Seattle Pacific University

Wall-Scheffler pointed out that the idea of men as hunters and women as gatherers can be attributed to two influential books, "Man the Hunter" (1968) and "Woman the Gatherer" (1983). But, these books failed to give a true picture of hunter-gather societies.

This study questions the historical bias that has shaped our understanding of gender roles in ancient societies. It highlights the contribution of female hunters and underscores the need to reassess traditional narratives.

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