Female Foragers Sometimes Hunt, Yet Gendered Divisions of Labor Are Real: A Comment on Anderson et al. (2023), The Myth of Man the Hunter

Authors

Vivek V. Venkataraman, University of CalgaryFollow
Jordie Hoffman, University of CalgaryFollow
Kyle Farquharson, University of CalgaryFollow
Helen Elizabeth Davis, Arizona State UniversityFollow
Edward H. Hagen, Washington State UniversityFollow
Raymond B. Hames, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Barry S. Hewlett, Washington State UniversityFollow
Luke Glowacki, Boston UniversityFollow
Haneul Jang, Toulouse School of EconomicsFollow
Robert Kelly, University of WyomingFollow
Karen Kramer, University of UtahFollow
Sheina Lew-Levy, Durham UniversityFollow
Katie Starkweather, University of Illinois ChicagoFollow
Kristen Syme, Leiden UniversityFollow
Duncan N. E. Stibbard-Hawkes, Durham UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

7-2024

Citation

Evolution and Human Behavior 45:4 (July 2024), 106586.

doi: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2024.04.014

Comments

Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. Used by permission.

Abstract

Gendered divisions of labor are a feature of every known contemporary hunter-gatherer (forager) society. While gender roles are certainly flexible, and prominent and well-studied cases of female hunting do exist, it is more often men who hunt. A new study (Anderson et al., 2023) surveyed ethnographically known foragers and found that women hunt in 79% of foraging societies, with big-game hunting occurring in 33%. Based on this single type of labor, which is one among dozens performed in foraging societies, the authors question the existence of gendered division of labor altogether. As a diverse group of hunter-gatherer experts, we find that claims that foraging societies lack or have weak gendered divisions of labor are contradicted by empirical evidence. We conducted an in-depth examination of the data and methods ofAnderson et al. (2023), finding evidence of sample selection bias and numerous coding errors undermining the paper's conclusions.Anderson et al. (2023) have started a useful dialogue to ameliorate the potential misconception that women never hunt. However, their analysis does not contradict the wide body of empirical evidence for gendered divisions of labor in foraging societies. Furthermore, a myopic focus on hunting diminishes the value of contributions that take different forms and downplays the trade-offs foragers of both sexes routinely face. We caution against ethnographic revisionism that projects Westernized conceptions of labor and its value onto foraging societies.