The ecological and social context of women’s hunting in small-scale societies

Women participate in hunting in some foraging societies but not in others. To examine the socioecological factors that are conducive to women’s hunting, we conducted an ethnographic survey using the Human Relations Area Files and other selected sources authored in the past 200 years. Based on life history theory and behavioural ecology, we predicted that women should engage in hunting when: i) it poses few conflicts with childcare, ii) it is associated with few cultural restrictions around the use of hunting technology, iii) it involves low-risk game within range of camp, with the aid of dogs, and/or in groups, and, iv) women fulfil key logistical or informational roles. We systematically reviewed ethnographic documents across 64 societies and coded 242 paragraphs for the above variables. The data largely support theoretical expectations. When women hunted, they did so in a fundamentally different manner than men, focusing on smaller game and hunting in larger groups near camp, often with the aid of dogs. There was little evidence to suggest that women only participated in hunting during non-reproductive years; instead, allocate networks were a prominent strategy for mitigating trade-offs between hunting and childcare responsibilities. Women commonly fulfilled crucial informational, logistical and ritualistic roles. Cultural restrictions limited women’s participation in hunting, but not to the extent commonly assumed. These data offer a cross-cultural framework for making inferences about whether and how women’s hunting occurred in the past.