Though few anthropologists still subscribe fully to the Man the Hunter narrative, its premises continue to influence interpretations.

This is the story of so many of our narratives. Invented to justify the status quo, then deeply embedded in our cultural narratives, so that they seem eternal. I’m so glad that we are intentionally disassembling these assumptions, one generation at a time.

Despite gender differences, the team found little evidence for rigid rules. “If somebody liked to hunt, they could just hunt,” Wall-Scheffler says.

Imagine that! Let’s normalize more of that in our post-industrial world.