Another paper taking issue with the trendy 'Woman the hunter' arguments. #Martin et al say:
'...we strongly disagree with a central premise that appears to motivate this scholarship: that the idea of evolved gendered subsistence activities derives largely from incorrect assumptions extrapolated from patriarchal norms today and/or rationalizations of “implicit male superiority” based solely on anatomical gender differences. Such claims are belied by extensive ethnographic and human behavioral ecology research across multiple extant foraging societies. These studies document the near universality of gendered divisions of labor, with women's large-scale participation in hunting occurring only in specific societies (i.e., the Agta) or contexts (i.e., small-game hunting) (Bird, 1999; Hoffman, Farquharson, & Venkataraman, 2023).'
Another important pre-print from #VivekVenkataraman and colleagues on the 'Woman the Hunter' debate:
'Woman the hunter? Female foragers sometimes hunt, yet gendered divisions of labor are real'
From black hole physics to theoretical behavioural ecology. John M McNamara giving an inaugural lecture in Budapest, Hungary: "The art of the state, modelling the endpoints of evolution by natural selection". (Don't miss the famous photos of Alasdair Houston and John from the 70s)