A new study published Wednesday is calling into question one of the oldest stereotypes about the roles of men and women, finding that female members of many of the world's remaining foraging societies are just as involved in hunting as men, despite long-held perceptions that men hunted and women gathered....
Women were found to have hunted game of all sizes, but most often large animals in a majority of societies, according to the study, spearheaded by Abigail Anderson of Seattle Pacific University’s biology department. The study found women were actively involved in teaching hunting practices, used a larger variety of weapons than men and were instrumental in bringing home animals for their families to eat, regardless of whether or not they were mothers.
Many hunter-gatherer cultures have disappeared over the millennia, but some of the societies mentioned in the paper include the Tiwi people of Australia, the Hadza of northern Tanzania, the Ganij of New Guinea and the 3,200 indigenous Matsés people of the Brazilian Amazon, who still rely on hunting and gathering for most of their sustenance but have interacted with missionaries, the Peruvian government and researchers.79%.