“He went for hunting, whereas she stayed and looked after home.”
This statement comprises of the truth that we have been kept listening through ages and histories whenever we came to study about early humans. But the discovery of a 9000 years old skeleton of a female body has marked a great disagreement on this statement. It has challenged the whole world’s assumption of manual labor based on gender.
Randall Hass, an archaeologist at the University of California, recalls about the year 2018 when he with his teammates gathered around the excavated burial site in the Andes Mountains of Peru, where that 9000 years old skeleton of a teenage girl around 18-19 year was found. She found buried with various items that suggested that she also hunted animals, as it is said person is buried with the goods that can come in its use in the afterlife also.
Archaeologists discovered this burial site at a high-altitude site now known as Peru. The sex of the discovered skeleton was determined by proteins and chemicals found on the skeleton’s teeth. According to the authors who published science advances also studied the other 27 skeletons based on sex, was determined that 41% were female. By this author said that this means the big game hunting was done by males and females both on a larger scale.
Facts Challenging Hypothetic Assumptions:
A hypothesis was proposed in the early 1960s named as “Man-The-Hunter-Model” which stated that big game hunting was primarily undertaken by the male members of hunter-gather societies in past. Keeping this model in mind the latest discoveries that have been made contradicts it forwarding the big facts of past society.
Also, when we see the stereotypical view of past and present society it involves the labor division based on gender that includes the men going for hunting and women staying back at home for looking after children and cooking food. But the discovery has resulted in many variations into it.
This new research totally contradicts the stereotypes by bringing past discoveries to the light. As it has been added that at 34,000 years old site of Sunghir in Russia, archaeologists discovered the two youngsters among which one was a teenage girl and both the individuals were buried with the ivory spears that are still called as one of the great hunting tools.
Around the year 2016-17, a renowned burial of a Viking warrior from Sweden discovered in the early 20th century assumed to be male but was later discovered as a female. It rooted the debate on gender role and how can hidden facts from the past influence the present gender roles and equality.
This discovery of 2018 has posed a great challenge on today’s gender role in which boy’s roles and girl’s roles have been divided. When they have found such contradictions and discrepancies, still they keep ignoring it as if ignoring it will make the evidence, as said by one of the archaeologists Geller.
Buried Goods and Tools
A colorful array of 24 stone tools was found during excavation which contained all kinds of tools including hefty rocks, ivories, projectile points for beating up a large mammal, rounded and small things like stony bits for scraping, tiny flakes with sharp corners that can chop out the meat, etc.
There were many uncertainties with the tools and the skeletons that were discovered alongside. Even the uncertain ones were removed the amount of male and female skeletons remained similar.
Hill one of the researchers included in that state, these tools can also be a part of worship or rituals which are buried once the person has died. Then Sterling opposingly said, we don’t question with such terms when we find toolkits with men.
Geller said, these discoveries directly questions our mentality and the roles that society has divided. It is critical even in the coming years also to prove it totally right with having all the facts too if such kind of inequality remains.
It is dangerous and a harmful substance for our society if such hypothetical assumptions didn’t solve sufficiently and in a fast way. There is gender disparity going on and we need to either solve it or justify it rightly.