Considerations of Developing Gender Roles in Paleolithic Man

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Considerations of Developing Gender Roles in Prehistoric Man Kathleen E. Waller ANT353 Michael Hollis March 5, 2012 Gender 1 When considering gender roles in prehistoric man, one can only speculate. There are limited resources available that lend any absolute evidences into the importance of developing gender relationships, and distributions of labor, between men and women. Archeology continues to unearth physical representations of primordial humans, along with archaic structures, tools, and ornamentation. As recently as February, 2012, Paleolithic cave paintings have been discovered preserved “in Spain's Nerja caves that have been radiocarbon dated to between 43,500 and 42,300 years old.” (MacErlean, 2012) These ancient representations give a rare glimpse into the past, but propose no real understanding of gender interactions. Examination of modern primitive cultures, offer anthropologists a model for early social structure, and man’s commencing division of labor based on gender. Cristina M. Espinosa addresses relevance of spirituality, ethnic difference, and gender subordination in her study of riparian people in Loreto, Peru. She concludes, “Unfinished processes of assimilation into urbanization, explain why riparian men and women operate within different cultural frameworks where attitudes, views, and practices related to ‘modernity’ and ‘indigeneity’ are not clearly separated but intertwined as part of processes of cultural hybridization that have been shaped by centuries of ethnic, class, and gender subordination.” (Espinosa, 2009) The study of myth and religion further proposes gender function, position, and attitudes in the evolving sexes. Inherent within the framework of Christianity for
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