Gendered movement ecology and landscape use in Hadza hunter-gatherers.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how gendered economic roles structure space use is critical to evolutionary models of foraging behaviour, social organization and cognition. Here, we examine hunter-gatherer spatial behaviour on a very large scale, using GPS devices worn by Hadza foragers to record 2,078 person-days of movement. Theory in movement ecology suggests that the density and mobility of targeted foods should predict spatial behaviour and that strong gender differences should arise in a hunter-gatherer context. As predicted, we find that men walked further per day, explored more land, followed more sinuous paths and were more likely to be alone. These data are consistent with the ecology of male- and female-targeted foods and suggest that male landscape use is more navigationally challenging in this

SUBMITTER: Wood BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8060163 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature