Hunting vs Gathering
There are things that get passed around as scientific and that get said an awful lot (including in history books that disappointment me) which, to me don't survive a challenge particularly well.
Take the terrible dangers facing men in our hunter-gatherer prehistory when they go hunting, versus the relative safety of being women staying closer to 'home' doing that whole gathering thing that's seldom worth explication.
The entire idea that gathering is safe womanly work and hunting is dangerous masculine work isn't silly because gathering is hard work too (much like housework was pretty damn hard physical labour a century ago) but because it is dangerous. At least as dangerous as hunting, and I suspect more so.
As I see it, when a group of guys go hunting, they're generally armed and watching each other's backs (to some extent). They go to a place where they will hunt and then stalk or ambush prey in some way and then return home. There are obvious dangers, but these being obvious the trick to survival is to anticipate trouble and avoid it. If things look dodgy you can often, like other predators, just give up the hunt. Mostly hunters are moving around with their head's up, weapons in hand, looking out for danger, and with some other guys doing the same not far away.
When a group of women go gathering they don't have the luxury of looking up all the time. Imagine digging roots... you have to look down to find the leaves of the plant you're looking for, take your stick and dig it out, pick it up, stow it about your person in some way... repeat. At least half the time taken requires you to be looking down. Picking berries? You push into the underbrush and pull the berries from the branches, watching so you don't rip your hand open on thorns or sharp-edged leaves, or drop the berries. Even when you're finding eggs, or small game animals, you're busy with your eyes focusing on something that isn't the leopard in the grass. Or the snake in the bush. Or the stinging insect. Or the angry rat. Not only do you, like any other grazing animal around, make great prey for big animals, you're additionally at risk from a variety of poisonous flora and fauna that a hunter is far less likely to disturb. Yes, you're with other women, but equally they have to spend time look at what they're doing. Yes, you can set kids to watch for big predators, but not for every biting spider, and once they're old enough to be useful most are likely to be picking berries and hunting bird's nests right alongside the women. There again, women are very often the ones who fetch water, and predators often sit around waterholes waiting for an opportunity to grab thirsty animals.
Yes, hunting is dangerous. But I suspect that the stack of firewood, the bowl of water, the leaf envelope full of termites -- those gathered things probably resulted in more direct and indirect fatalities.
Of course, hunting a rhino get's you a lot more kudos than picking berries, and even today the mythology of hunting lives in the backs of our minds...
Take the terrible dangers facing men in our hunter-gatherer prehistory when they go hunting, versus the relative safety of being women staying closer to 'home' doing that whole gathering thing that's seldom worth explication.
The entire idea that gathering is safe womanly work and hunting is dangerous masculine work isn't silly because gathering is hard work too (much like housework was pretty damn hard physical labour a century ago) but because it is dangerous. At least as dangerous as hunting, and I suspect more so.
As I see it, when a group of guys go hunting, they're generally armed and watching each other's backs (to some extent). They go to a place where they will hunt and then stalk or ambush prey in some way and then return home. There are obvious dangers, but these being obvious the trick to survival is to anticipate trouble and avoid it. If things look dodgy you can often, like other predators, just give up the hunt. Mostly hunters are moving around with their head's up, weapons in hand, looking out for danger, and with some other guys doing the same not far away.
When a group of women go gathering they don't have the luxury of looking up all the time. Imagine digging roots... you have to look down to find the leaves of the plant you're looking for, take your stick and dig it out, pick it up, stow it about your person in some way... repeat. At least half the time taken requires you to be looking down. Picking berries? You push into the underbrush and pull the berries from the branches, watching so you don't rip your hand open on thorns or sharp-edged leaves, or drop the berries. Even when you're finding eggs, or small game animals, you're busy with your eyes focusing on something that isn't the leopard in the grass. Or the snake in the bush. Or the stinging insect. Or the angry rat. Not only do you, like any other grazing animal around, make great prey for big animals, you're additionally at risk from a variety of poisonous flora and fauna that a hunter is far less likely to disturb. Yes, you're with other women, but equally they have to spend time look at what they're doing. Yes, you can set kids to watch for big predators, but not for every biting spider, and once they're old enough to be useful most are likely to be picking berries and hunting bird's nests right alongside the women. There again, women are very often the ones who fetch water, and predators often sit around waterholes waiting for an opportunity to grab thirsty animals.
Yes, hunting is dangerous. But I suspect that the stack of firewood, the bowl of water, the leaf envelope full of termites -- those gathered things probably resulted in more direct and indirect fatalities.
Of course, hunting a rhino get's you a lot more kudos than picking berries, and even today the mythology of hunting lives in the backs of our minds...