So What Did Neanderthal Women Do All Day?

Ann Althouse on gender roles, division of labor, and Neanderthals:

The usual evidence of division of labor by sex -- needles, small animal remains, grinding stones -- is missing, so anthropologists Steven L. Kuhn and Mary C. Stiner theorize that the women must have joined the men in hunting for large animals. But -- assuming the theory is correct -- don't cheer over the modern-seeming enlightenment of the Neanderthals. The Neanderthals died out, and our ancestors, with their division of labor, won the struggle for survival.

Read the whole thing and see why Ann struggles with calling Neanderthals dumb.

John Hawks weighs in:

Apparently it took some tropical mojo to make modern women realize they could eat plant foods like every other primate.