Women Hunt As Often As Men In Many Hunting Societies: Study

For ages, society has held that men hunted and women gathered. This old stereotype has led to the formalisation of the gender roles that prevail even in today’s age. However, breaking the myth, a new study published by the Public Library of Science discovered that women in several hunting communities are equally involved in hunting.

The study looked into 63 living hunting communities across the world that practise hunting and gathering for a living and investigated how women participated in hunting, what kind of tools they used, and what they hunted.

Women Hunt As Often As Men

The study found that women hunted animals of all sizes, mostly large animals, in the majority of hunting societies. They were actively involved in teaching hunting techniques, used a larger variety of hunting weapons as compared to men, and contributed to bringing home animals for their families. It was also found that women didn't opportunistically hunt animals when they were gathering; hunting was their role, which applied to them whether or not they were mothers.

The study revealed that out of the 63 hunting societies, 79 percent had female members who hunted. The study has busted the myth that held men to be hunters and women to be gatherers as the building blocks instrumental in building the prevailing gender roles and stereotypes in society, with men being less emotional and more aggressive while women are expected to be more nurturing and focused on childrearing.

While many hunting societies have disappeared over the millennia, some mentioned in the research include the Tiwi people of Australia, the Hadza of northern Tanzania, the Ganij of New Guinea, and the 3,200 indigenous Matses people of the Brazilian Amazon. These people are dependent on hunting and gathering for their survival. However, most of them have interacted with missionaries, the Peruvian government, and researchers.

In the study, titled The Myth of Man The Hunter, researchers pointed out that in 2017, when the skeleton remains of a person were found in Sweden, it was assumed to be a high-ranking male Viking warrior because of the stone projectiles buried alongside. However, it was later found to be a woman, according to genetic identification. The researchers noted the inherent bias that even scientists had and blamed it on the lack of "recognition of contributions by women to hunting."

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