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The Conversation
The Conversation
Sarah Lacy, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Delaware

Forget ‘Man the Hunter’ – physiological and archaeological evidence rewrites assumptions about a gendered division of labor in prehistoric times

In small-group, subsistence living, it makes sense for everyone to do lots of jobs. gorodenkoff/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Prehistoric men hunted; prehistoric women gathered. At least this is the standard narrative written by and about men to the exclusion of women.

The idea of “Man the Hunter” runs deep within anthropology, convincing people that hunting made us human, only men did the hunting, and therefore evolutionary forces must only have acted upon men. Such depictions are found not only in media, but in museums and introductory anthropology textbooks, too.

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