On Thu, 8 Jun 2000 13:48:36 MDT Dori Zook <[log in to unmask]> writes:
> Hello, listers.
>
> Maybe I'm setting myself up for a fall, but I've thought of asking
> this question before.  What went on between the sexes way back when?

Ardeith writes:
We'll never really know......until someone invents a time
machine.........social values don't fossilize very well......
but fossilized human bones have been found that show
signs of serious injury....and healing.....and the person
living on beyond the injury......which seems to indicate
a degree of care-taking while the injured person recovered....
Wolves will bring food to an injured pack-mate, and it
seems that early humans would too...............

Dori wrote:
> The Great Maha Rushdi (aka Rush Limbaugh) just mentioned how women
> stayed at home while men worked for "thousands of years."  But did they

> really?

Ardeith writes:
Of course not.........but men like the Limburger have always
de-valued the work women did that provided the support
structure that allowed the men to go out in the world and
do greater and lesser things...............studies in existing
HG cultures in the 1900's indicated that much if not most
of the food was gathered by men, women, children and
the old folks.......the men usually did the hunting of large
game animals ......not that women couldn't.....but the
women were usually tied down by kids to take care of
......can't go off chasing a mastodon when you are
nursing one baby and have a four year old child to take
care of too..........besides, sending the men and older
boys off on a hunt got them out of the women's hair
for a while............

Dori wrote:
 I have not,
> however, heard much about the roles of men and women in prehistoric
> time.Were they separate but equal?  Men dominant and women submissive?

> Or all just in it together?

Ardeith wrote:
We can't really know........it's been a while since I took
anthropology in college, but I seem to remember that
most of the HG cultures were more egalitarian than
the later farmer cultures......as for women being
submissive......I doubt our early female ancestors
were all that submissive.......look at the Bonobo
chimps......no submissive females there!   The
other apes were usually organized in family groups
around the females......with a mature male or two
for breeding and protection, and immature males
hanging around until the old man ran them off......

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Walk The Path With Practical Feet!

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