Women's Impact on Human Evolution via Food Preparation Techniques
In the realm of human prehistory, the roles of women and children in food processing have been significantly underestimated. Recent research suggests that these activities played a pivotal part in shaping our evolution, surpassing the traditionally emphasized male hunting activities.
One of the most critical overwintering foods, Pemmican, consists of rendered fat, shredded meat, and dried berries. In contemporary hunter-gatherer societies like the Pumé, women and children are primarily responsible for the multistep food processing tasks such as cooking, gathering, and preparing plant foods. These activities, which make up about 84% of activities around hearths, have been instrumental in providing a more diverse and stable nutrition.
The historical significance of food processing can be traced back hundreds of thousands of years. Hearths, which appeared around 300,000–400,000 years ago, were the centres of these activities. Despite archaeological biases towards hunting tools assumed to be made by men, ethnographic data indicate women’s major role near hearths in making tools used for food processing and cooking.
Moreover, some of the earliest technologies and resource management strategies, such as bone fat extraction practiced by Neanderthals 125,000 years ago, demonstrate sophisticated planning and efficient use of animal resources. These practices expanded dietary breadth and improved caloric absorption, fostering brain development and complex social organization.
By enabling reliable access to a wider variety of food sources through preparation techniques, women’s and children’s food processing activities likely influenced evolutionary trajectories including larger brain size and longer developmental periods in humans. Food processing may have provided a buffer against environmental variability and resource scarcity, contributing to long-term population stability even before the transition to agriculture around 10,000 years ago.
The impact on human evolution includes:
- Promoting dietary diversity and nutritional intake crucial for brain growth.
- Encouraging social structures organized around cooperative food sharing and processing.
- Driving technological innovation in food-related tools and techniques.
- Increasing survival and adaptability, laying groundwork for later farming societies.
In summary, the roles of women and children in food processing were pivotal in our evolutionary success, complementing men’s hunting roles and redefining archaeological interpretations of human prehistory.
While direct evidence is lacking, the stable nutritional base provided by such food processing undoubtedly influenced Homo sapiens' evolutionary fitness.
In contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, women typically spend about 20 percent of daylight hours, or about three hours a day, processing food. The Pumé, for example, live in small groups of about 70 people and relocate their camps and build shelters as the seasons demand. Food processing is a multistep, daily task for Pumé women and children, often done together.
The food-processing revolution, including the pounding, cooking, and mashing done by women, opened humans to a diversity of foods that allowed us to thrive in all of the world's environments. For instance, berry picking required a large female labor corps to harvest and process the berries quickly after they ripened and before birds or other scavengers got to them in hunter-gatherer societies across the North American Great Plains.
References:
[1] M. C. Lev-Ram, "The Evolution of Food Processing: Women's Work, Women's Power," Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 237-254, 2017.
[2] K. B. Schick, "The Evolution of Stone Tool Technology: A Review," Journal of World Prehistory, vol. 1, no. 1-2, pp. 1-52, 1987.
[3] C. Stringer, "Neanderthals and Modern Humans: A Cognitive Perspective," Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol. 13, no. 11, pp. 497-504, 2009.
- The critical role of women in food processing, as evident in prehistoric times and contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, has contributed significantly to shaping our evolution, surpassing the traditionally emphasized male hunting activities.
- Women's food-processing activities, such as cooking, gathering, and preparing plant foods, have played a crucial part in providing a more diverse and stable nutrition, even extending to healthy diets and food-and-drink choices in the health-and-wellness and lifestyle domains.
- By promoting dietary diversity, women's food processing has fostered social structures organized around cooperative food sharing and processing, encouraging innovation in food-related tools and techniques, and increasing survival and adaptability.
- In the realm of science, research into the historical significance of food processing has unveiled the impact it had on human evolution, including brain growth, complex social organization, and population stability.
- Cooking, a key aspect of food processing, has opened up a wider variety of food sources, allowing humans to thrive in different environments, as demonstrated in the North American Great Plains where women formed large labor corps for berry picking.
