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Date: | Tue, 14 Apr 1998 08:05:58 -0400 |
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I am no advocate of a simple antiquated "man the hunter - woman the
gatherer" model. On the other hand I believe there is no doubt, that in
all human populations there is more or less division of labor and at least
in many pulations there are certain dietary gender differences.
In his book "The foraging spectrum: diversity in hunter-gatherer lifeways"
R.L.Kelly writes: "Food is not shared equally, and men and women in a
hunter-gatherer camp may eat very different diets, with women often eating
less meat than men." (p. 23)
The question is not if there are any dietary gender differences in humans, but
1) how frequent and considerable are such differences in human populations?
2) are there universal patterns of dietary differences between men and women?
3) do these dietary differences have effects on the nutrient composition of
the diet? (Do women eating less big game meat get the same amount of
protein from small animal or vegetable resources?)
3) Are observed dietary differences recent cultural adaptations or
long-time (how long?) trends, which exert a selective pressure?
In my last message I mentioned two studies about differences in colonic
length between men and women. Again a question to all paleodieters: Have
you ever heard about such differences in the digestive tract of humans?
Supposing it were so: wouldn't this have implications? Any other
explanation for these differences?
Best wishes
Ruediger Hoeflechner
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