Spear and digging stick

Abstract

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.