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09 – Ethnoscience & Cognitive What is the image that goes through your mind, when thinking about evolution? Is it
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Sally Slocum, Woman the Gatherer: Male Bias in Anthropology
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posts by email. physical anthropologist called the “man the hunter” version of human evolution.
Slocum argues that evidence indicates foraging; not hunting was the principle
Join 1,803 other followers economic strategy throughout most of human evolution. Is this “woman the gatherer”
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David Valentine, I Went to Bed with My Own Kind Once: The Erasure of Desire
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Valentine a cultural and linguistic anthropologist with interests in gender and sexuality
Authorship examined how the emergence of this term enabled activists and others to imagine a
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 a more just world for gender variant individuals. As mention in his essay, Valentine
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Eleanor Leacock, Interpreting the Origins of Gender Inequality: Conceptual and
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In Eleanor Leacock’s essay, she mentions how early anthropologist view women’s
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Like Page women that men are able to work and profit. Leacock argues however that before
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Structuralism: Levi- Appling Applied Cultural Ecology and

Strauss and Ortner Anthropology in the Real Neo-Evolutionary
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Structuralism: Levi- Appling Applied Cultural Ecology and

Strauss and Ortner Anthropology in the Real Neo-Evolutionary
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By TheAnthroGeek, on April 8, 2012 at 12:06 am, under 11 - Feminism & Gender. 13

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jesteenburns On April 8, 2012 at 3:53 pm Permalink | Reply

Gender and anthropology was, like most issues involving the issue of gender and
sex, an interesting take on the topic. The particular article I am focusing on is that
from Sally Slocum, and her evolutionary take on the importance of understanding
the female’s role in the evolution of the homo species. I personally found the article
quite interesting. In many different articles I have read (not just in the field of
anthropology) which have a feminist motive behind it usually just seem to shift the
focus of a male bias to a female bias, however in Slocum’s article I do not think this
is the case. She does largely discredit the male hunting habit as the driving force of
evolutionary development, however I do not feel that it was completely overdone,
and more importantly there was no final conclusion that it was females and not
males that were responsible for this (which I was actually expecting).
The major difference between this article and the other two that are presented to
represent this school of thought is that Slocums article focuses more on sex while
the others focus more on gender. Because it focused on human development I
found it quite interesting and focused on it, however I think the other article’s
approaches are a bit more useful in actually applying anthropological theory to
research.
This article, along with many that focus on sex relation, is that it is very hard for
many women (me included) to read them without thinking ‘’well, of course!’’, our
hind sight and cultural emersion of this generation in feminist thought makes things
like accepting that women could provide for themselves second nature. But I think
that as women (and men) we still need to examine the facts and question the driving
force behind many cultural practices and development.
 3 0 Rate This

Martha T. On April 8, 2012 at 6:09 pm Permalink | Reply

Slocum brings up another interesting point about schema (discussed last week).
She states that male bias has greatly influenced our perspective on our gender
roles of other (and earlier) cultures. She argues that our current traditional gender
roles have bent the lens through which we examine others. For this reason, “Man
the Hunter” has emerged as the accepted role of early man. Already, early in our
family tree, “Man the Hunter” goes out to bring home the bacon to his kept woman
waiting at home caring for the children. Is this really what happened? Or are these
the assumptions we make based on our own cultural gender norms.
Can we truly put aside our biases and observe objectively? Or does the lack of
evidence and our gaps in knowledge force us to make too many assumptions and
inferences? Slocum writes “We are human beings studying other human beings,
and we cannot leave ourselves out of the equation.” Slocum states anthropology
has been a field pioneered by white men, and just recently are minorities being
encouraged into the field, shaping our preferred theories in anthropology. How has
women’s lack of participation in anthropology affected how we see the “human
animal”?
2 0 Rate This

Dale H On April 9, 2012 at 2:06 pm Permalink | Reply

There are a bewildering number of sexual identities discussed by David Valentine

and yet, even though most are “suppose” to fit in the ever increasing labels as
required for western cultural notions of understanding, accomplishing a “true
definition” of an identity is impossible. I agree with that. Some things just can’t be
defined. How can any classifications be made? Just like last week (or two weeks
ago), we have people trying to assign culture or genetics. But I think genetics
generally plays a much more significant role. Anyway, Valentine even goes so far to
say that, the deeper one studies into the issues of classification or variation, it
doesn’t get clearer, it gets more confusing. The editor considers this to be a good
example of “one of the most unmanageable dilemmas of the post modern thought.”
There are some however, that will never accept any definition other than “boy” or
“girl”. They say everything else is culture. They have probably never considered
how genetics has fashioned half boy half girl (and all the other fractional
possibilities), girl on the inside boy on the outside and vice versa, and all the other
variations that “nature” has created. With that in mind, what about “the mind”? Why
would “IT” be any different? It seems absolutely logical that, with all the possible
genetically produced physical variations, there would have to be a myriad of
possibilities for genetically produced mental variations. Then, mix those ideas
together and try and “classify” and “define” the sexuality of the resulting people and I
see how you get “one of the most unmanageable dilemmas of the post modern
thought.”
1 0 Rate This

CorrinaC On April 10, 2012 at 4:28 pm Permalink | Reply

Historically, females have been seen to be second class compared to men almost
unimportant. I instantly have flashbacks to the reading by Sherry Ortner, and find
that the same built constructions of women and men overtime can also be applied
here. There is a lot of emphasis on hunting in general, which so happens to be a
traditional habit of men, but it also implies that hunting is what instigated any kind of
evolving in the human species. I think that a lot of material evidence can be
attributed by men, but what women have to contribute to evolution is more in a
cultural aspect, but also affects that biological evolving process too.
Men, first being biologically larger and stronger than women have often taken up in
activities that involve endangerment like hunting and warfare that often measure the
value of that man. The more dangerous the game, the more prestige is awarded to
the victor. It seems to me men are given prestige in a constructed output because of
their social activities. Nothing they do is remarkably biologically noting, but woman
carry offspring and are creating a new life naturally subjecting their bodies to pain
and alteration. Their worth value should be seen to be higher than assumed, but
they are only viewed prestigious from a biologically standpoint. As the gatherers and
“carriers” of life, it seemed that not much is accredited to them throughout human
evolution leaving all the evolving to men which is just bogus. I do find it interesting
that the beginning of art, language and tools were accredited to men when however,
among one of the earliest pieces of art ever found, the Venus of Willendorf is crafted
in the image of a woman, not a man. Even the famous cave art in France where
imprints of hands were discovered for years thought to be the work of men, but
scientists have determined that women actually had a larger role it the art creation
more so than men did. Even Lucy, the famous Australopithecus, greatly contributed
to species evolution is a female.
Perhaps, materialistically, much can be accredited towards men, but society and
culture evolves through people and people have to be taken care of by someone.
That someone is usually the mother who ultimately is the one who trains their
infants the value of kinship bonds, food sharing, social organizations, and skills
needed to first adapt to life. The child’s life depends on the mother while the “great
hunter” is busy bringing home the bacon. I’m not a mom, but I heard the role is
tough, a lot of planning, communications, complex organizing, and development is
needed in child raising, while having to have sufficient knowledge in food gathering
(food economics). That sounds like a whole a lot of potential for cultural evolution
there.
3 0 Rate This

EarlP On April 10, 2012 at 7:18 pm Permalink | Reply

Like some of my classmates I enjoyed Slocum’s article. I like her take on the male
generated evolution of mankind. After reading her article and the notes on the
bottom of the pages, I liked how they point out the bias that anthropology has
toward the evolution of women. The social science that is supposed to be objective
is a little hypocritical. But, like the old saying “the winners write the history.” I think
that’s how it goes, but my point is that obviously men wrote the history books and
they had to place themselves at the top and in front of change and development. I
also find it interesting that anthropology is dominated by men, since I have been in
school every anthro class has been dominated by females. Men have always been
the minority in every anthro class I have taken look at our own class 104. Slocum
threw me off when she started talking about differences between humans, lesser
primates, and brain sizes. The brain size creates more complex “nonsymbolic
communication,” (401) such has attitude, emotions, and moods. These brain
activities create a type of attitude or thought towards other members of a social
group. After reading that it made me think about how that might work in our society
now. Because, I feel as a lot of modern sexism is a learned trait. Possibly a type of
social constraint put on little boys while they are growing up and throughout life.
2 0 Rate This

Fiona On April 10, 2012 at 10:34 pm Permalink | Reply

So this is the second time I’m posting a comment, because apparently this blog is
ridiculous. Hopefully I’ll be able to remember all the amazingly insightful thoughts of
my original comment.
Anyway. I’m going to start off by saying that while I believe in equal rights between
the sexes, I wouldn’t necessarily consider myself a feminist. That may sound a bit
oxymoronic because that’s virtually the definition of a feminist, but I also think that
there are many people who consider themselves feminists who read far too much
into certain situations. Of course, I think that about a lot of things.
As such, I think that Slocum’s essay on the “man the hunter” situation may be
reading a bit too much into things. While it is entirely possible that the reason the
focus of our evolution has been on hunters is because said research was conducted
by men. In fact, it is likely that that had a role to play. However, I also think that it
may be possible that there are other reasons for it. Maybe it’s easier to find
evidence of hunting than of gathering? I’m not trying to diminish the importance of
gathering, of course, because we all know that it is the food gathered that keeps a
population alive and not that which is brought in by hunting. I just think that maybe
there are other things at play than the biases of male researchers in the history of
anthropology.
3 2 Rate This

Elizabeth On April 10, 2012 at 10:39 pm Permalink | Reply

I really enjoyed reading Sally Slocum’s article on the “Woman the Gatherer: Male
Bias in Anthropology”. I found it very interesting when Slocum inserted a quote from
Jane Kephart stating, “Since only males hunt, and the psychology of the species
was set by hunting, we are forced to conclude that females are scarcely human, that
is, do not have built in the basic psychology of the species to kill and hunt and
ultimately to kill others of the same species….the argument implies built in
aggression in human males, as well as the assumed passivity of human females
and their exclusion from the mainstream of human development.” (1970:5). I was
very intrigued by Kephart’s statement of the male species’ aggression and where it
was originated. It seems logical that this is why the two genders are so different in
the way, generally speaking, the two may be perceived
0 0 Rate This

Bryan Swarts On April 11, 2012 at 10:24 am Permalink | Reply

I enjoyed Valentines article. To me, I would rather have the individual label
themselves rather than have society do it for them. However, I do think that is one of
the pastimes of western culture: to label people. From there we focus on a very
specific understanding (quite often a misunderstanding), and then we develop a fear
or comfort of it and exaggerate those thoughts and feelings we hold. For example, I
live in the USA and I have been told that we are a great country. This could
eventually lead to calling it the “greatest country on earth.” Is it the greatest?
Probably not, but that’s not for me to decide. Another example could be that
someone hearing LGBT people are different, which may lead to “LGBT is an
abomination!” Is it? Of course not. But my point is that it is these misunderstandings
that lead to labeling. Think about how many times you have labeled someone in
your life or have heard labels and have developed preconceived feeling before even
meeting the person. Jocks, geeks, lawyers, religionists, LGBT people, boy/girl
scouts, hippies, teachers, fraternity/sorority people, overachievers, white people,
black people, fat people, scientists, drug dealers, soldiers, etc. Ah! And lets through
two more in there: men and women. We often see both sides labeling each other in
order to get an understanding of the other without talking with them. I feel like we
make these assumptions and labels out of where we feel passionate about on the
spectrum of gender. If you have been treated fairly well or terribly wrong by the
other, then we might play off of those initial feeling rather than try to remain
unbiased. We often say “every [insert] is like this” even when meeting one person
who “represents” that image. I guess it’s also because of our research methodology
as well. If we think that the other gender is confusing or inferior, do you think you are
asking the right questions? My girlfriend and I were talking about “gas lighting” a
couple months ago and she typed into the computer: “women affected by gas
lighting.” And guess what, she found articles about women being gas lighted (how
flabbergasting!). So then I typed in “men affected by gas lighting,” and guess what, I
found articles on men being gas lighted (equally flabbergasting!). Were we really
unbiased in our search topics? Can the actions and practices of a few define an
entire culture/people/belief? If there was a victim and an oppressor in the past, can
we be justified in rewarding or punishing those in the present? Is it justified to use
fixed labels? Is it justified to comment/criticize on something that we were/are not a
part of? Can we really say that someone is superior or inferior? Can we really
attribute anything to anyone?
 1 0 Rate This

Kayla Myers On April 11, 2012 at 6:07 pm Permalink | Reply

I have to agree with what Corrina said in her last paragraph. I find it kind of funny
because the term is “hunter gatherer” last time I checked, not just hunter. The role of
the woman is just as important if not more than what the men were doing. As we
discussed in class the hunters were not making these huge kills everyday so the
gathering portion of this would definitely be important in this sitation so my question
is what were they doing when they weren’t making kills/hunting? For those who
have kids it is mostly the mother who teaches the young the cultural ways of life at
least daat the times of their lives thats most important. Yeah every now and then
you have the occasional father who will stay at home and take care of the kids big
whoop, they dont go through process of birthing a child. I would love to think that we
live in a world where everyone is equal but truth is we’re not all treated equal sadly,
and I’m not sure we ever all will be.
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Arlyne Boyer On April 11, 2012 at 10:46 pm Permalink | Reply

These essays have made me feel very thankful and grateful for all my forward-
thinking sisters of the 60s who pushed for our collective voices to be heard far into
the future.
Dare we imagine where we might be if there was no feminist movement? Try to
picture it. I find it baffling to think it was nearly fifty years ago. Did time go by in dog
years? It seems like only yesterday the cool college girls in my hometown were
burning their bras and the next thing I knew – I was able to wear pants to school for
the first time ever! It was no longer against the law! WooHoo!!!! Those were the
good-time-instant-rewards of the feminist movement in my small world.
Getting back to the essays, I like where the anthropologists have taken the feminist
movement with regard to the writing styles and trends. I like the idea of doing “auto-
ethnography” as it seems to be the perfect blend of anthropological analysis mixed
with autobiographical information in an ethnographic setting.
Having said that, I will state that I am not a huge advocate of the whole “gender”
thing within anthropology. I dont want to waste my time getting all wriled up about
some past injustices that I cannot change. Instead I will move forward focusing on
equal representation of the roles of both men and women – a neutral role.
Much of Sally Slocum’s essay “Woman the Gatherer” feels like man-bashing to me.
I don’t interpret the anthropological term “man” to mean men specifically. It means
“human” to me. It means all of us. Slocum uses terms like “drags on the species”
(439) to describe her interpretation of how “Man the Hunter” thought about the role
of women in his society. This is a fetch, at best. A test to incite ill-rest… and I don’t
want to play that game.
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rosalva On April 12, 2012 at 6:21 pm Permalink | Reply

Slocum mentions “That Anthropology is a reflection of male bias in the discipline.”

(407) I agree that most of history was written by men and what was learned was
through their lenses. But as my peers have mention that women have also had a
feminist bias and that would should be looking towards a neutral balance and not
one side always getting attack. The development of the human species was a
product of both men and women they both influence and had a part in our survival.
0 1 Rate This

Stephen Sanchez On April 13, 2012 at 11:12 pm Permalink | Reply

 The deprivation of women’s equality as suggested in the article by Leacock,
demonstrates that women are adversely affected by the economic exploitation of
capatalistic nations. The indigenous populations of virtually every continent, before
the creation of centralized states, displayed levels of egalitarian societies and
shared work between males and females with no notion of decreased social status
pertaining to a certain job. It wash’t until the colonization by nations looking to
exploit the wealth and resources of the lands, that we see societies perception
towards women change. This was most likely the result of the increased warfare
between cultures and trading by encountering populations.
Looking at the field of Anthropology for the past 100 years, most of the work being
conducted was by male-biased Anthropologists. This, like I previously stated in the
above paragraph, was the result of economic-social factors during the time of the
Anthropologists conducting the fieldwork. Thus, if the society breeding the
Anthropologists leans toward more of a male-dominatent society than the
Anthropology will be that of male perspective coming from a dominate position.
Thus, my conclusion leads to another question; Do women in turn point the finger
and blame the males of these societies and cultures as the result for the downfall of
egalatarian society? What if women wrote the course of history, would society have
remained in an egalitarian state or would it have change? What would have been
the direction of this change?
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CB On May 12, 2014 at 8:30 pm Permalink | Reply

Obviously the two pictures show the type of constraints men and women have in our
culture. We are put into boxes on how we are supposed to me. Men= tough, strong.
Women= care taker, someone to look at. Women are left out a lot. Just like “man the
hunter,” as said, no one says “woman the gatherer.” What we know is what we are
told but what we are told leaves out an entire different sex, which shows that women
are not acknowledged as much in todays society.
My question is, how is this universal all around that men are superior to women?
The main food supply consisted of gathered food, not a kill of some sort. How did,
through evolution, men become superior than women? And how men get paid more
than women? Or that women (some men, don’t get me wrong) are subjected to
domestic abuse?
On another note, this divide is extremely present in todays world. A man still has his
types of jobs and a woman has her. Women still don’t get paid the same as men,
and even if they are paid the same, a lot of the time it takes them longer than men
to be promoted. Our society has a fixed idea on what a man and women should do
and should be. Just like the book from Anth 111, parents have jobs to support their
family, yet the woman still works more than the man. The type of “double shift”
emerged after more women started to work. Women will work all day and then come
home to work till they go to bed. Yes, our society is much better than others but it is
still terrible for some who are not white, or who are not a man.
0 0 Rate This

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