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Spear and digging stick

The origin of gender and its implications for the colonization of new continents

University of Western Australia, Australia

Sandra Bowdler

University of Western Australia, Australia

A division of labour between sexes/genders in which, although there is some overlap, men hunt large game and women collect smaller game, shellfish and most plant foods, is a characteristic of all documented hunter-gatherer societies. We argue that there is no biological reason for this behaviour and that it must be a social construct. These gender roles became part of the structure of societies at the same time as other forms of symbolic behaviour associated with anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens). Established gender roles were important for the first colonizers of a new continent, Australia, because it allowed the colonizers to tackle a completely new environment.

Key Words: colonization of Australia • division of labour • gender origins

Journal of Social Archaeology, Vol. 6, No. 3, 379-401 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1469605306067845


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