Jim > I believe that -- for men at least, who were primarily responsible for the hunting part of the hunter-gatherer equation

Indrek > Were they? I think this is just a picture painted to us by patriarchal Victorian culture, where palaeolithic (not a spelling error) discoveries were interpreted via modern day hierarchies. Quite a lot of anthropological discoveries were made then.

As politically incorrect as it is to say so, it's pretty clear that there were natural divisions of labor by gender in 99% of hunter gatherer groups ever studied.  While there have been a very few exceptions found where women take part in the hunt, because of their larger size and greater physical strength men for the hunting part of the hunter-gatherer equation.  The men also were the protectors/warriors.  And women and children and the elderly did the gathering.

In our times of radical egalitarianism, such truths are hard to hear sometimes.  We tend to want to ignore such evidence.  But as I said on the other list, feminism isn't paleo.  It's a very modern reaction to the disgusting idea that one person can be another person's property.
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