Get ready to dispel the age-old notion that prehistoric men were nothing more than destructively savage cavemen. New studies show that not only is this presumption terribly false, but that prehistoric societies undoubtedly showed signs of gender equality that are infinitely more graceful than the ones of our society today. Led by researchers at University College London (UCL), the study examined the lives and social structure of extremely similar existing groups, and concluded that there exist very strong indications of a higher plane of sexual equality in such societies.
A look at gender equality among the peoples of Kenya and the Philippines
To gather data from their observations, a team of researchers was dispatched from the Hunter-Gatherer Resilience Project of the UCL anthropology department. They subsequently lived for two years among the primitive, indigenous tribes in the Philippines and Kenya.
The examination showed fascinating patterns. The studies indicated that there seemed to be a low level of “relatedness” among the hunter-gatherer societies. This translated into an inclination toward practicality and objectivity in times of decision-making.
To arrive effectively at a conclusion, the team gathered geological information on the natural habits among the groups: mobility between camps, living patterns, relationships among relatives, and interviews with hundreds of individuals from a range of different groups. The key to their success in delegating equal shares of responsibility and power, it seems, is never maintaining solid, permanent kinship ties within camps. This might sound counterintuitive to the primal instincts of cooperative survival, but it works in many ways. Data was compiled from a computer-simulated program that was used to study the model of camp assortment. It showed that, in the end, when families alternated between camps in which either the husbands or wives had close kin, greater gender equality in overall decision-making was displayed.
Forming agricultural societies: the beginning of the end of gender equality
Interestingly enough, it was the emergence of the first agricultural societies some 12,000 years ago that led to the prevalence of male-dominated social hierarchies. These included basic pastoral and horticultural societies, which centered on the tending of fields and livestock. Thus, the roots of present-day gender equality (or lack thereof) may very well be steeped in the beginnings of the first agricultural advancements, when the rapid accumulation of and strife surrounding resources was crucial.
Read more at Clapway: http://clapway.com/2015/05/16/studies-higher-gender-equality-among-prehistoric-hunter-gatherers123/#ixzz3b72v8VgR
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