A new study analyzed data from 63 foraging societies around the world and found that the “men exclusively hunt, women exclusively gather” model might not actually hold water. The researchers found that women hunt in 79% of these societies, regardless of their status as mothers. They also found that 70% of female hunting is deliberate (not just opportunistic). Females are usually after big game, and they use a greater variety of weapons and hunting strategies than the men. That adds up — I’m always banging proverbial screws in with a proverbial hammer while my wife strategizes and figures out the right way to do the thing 😅. But don’t tell her I told you that. Females were also found to be more involved in teaching hunting to the next generation. And granted, the data is from societies from the past 100 years, but it’s likely to apply to ancient peoples as well, and this is backed by plenty of archaeology. Women have been found buried by tools used in hunting big game. The same goes for weapons (to the point that many women were misidentified as men). And I covered a study in issue #58 about digesta as a food source, and how it would have allowed women to hunt with men.