Analysis of gender roles of early ancestors

下面为大家整理一篇优秀的essay代写范文 -- Analysis of gender roles of early ancestors，文章讲述在古代世界中，我们的祖先为生存而奋斗，以应对极其困难的自然环境和稀缺的食物资源。在人类进化的过程中，由于生活条件的变化，男性和女性的角色逐渐彼此区分，这大致遵循了男性负责狩猎和战斗的模式，而女性则负责收集水果和抚养子女。然而，从南方古猿到哈比斯人，直立人，尼安德特人和智人，性别角色并没有固定。由于环境，食物，使用工具和火灾的能力以及社会结构的发展的差异，它发生了变化。在我们的现代研究中，这些古代原始人的性别角色由于各种原因引起了很多关注，包括女权主义的观点，寻求对现代社会中人类行为的理论解释等。

 

Introduction

In ancient world, our ancestors struggled for survivals against extremely difficult natural environment and scarce food resources. In the course of human evolution, roles of male and female gradually distinguished from each other due to changing living conditions, which roughly followed the pattern of male taking the responsibility of hunting and battling whereas female collected fruits and rear children. Yet, from Australopithecus, to Homo habilis, to Homo erectus, to Neanderthal, and to Homo sapiens, gender roles were not fixed. It altered due to the differences in environment, food, the capacity of using tools and fire and development of social structure. In our modern researches, gender roles of these ancient hominids have draw a lot of attention for various reasons including feminist perspectives, seeking for a theoretical explanation of human behaviors in modern society and so on.

 

1. Introduction of the evolution process of hominids discussed

1.1. Graph of the evolution process of hominids discussed

Taking Human Evolution Timeline (Net. 1.) and What Evolution Is (Mayr 2001: 218-234) as a reference, the following tree was to outline a general process of human evolution among the hominids discussed here, including Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Neanderthal and Homo sapiens.

 

Australopithecus: bipedalism (4.2 million years ago)

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          Glacial epoch: Drastic weather change (3 million years ago)

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Drought in East Africa

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             Homo habilis: stone tools (2.4 – 1.5 million years ago)

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Language appeared partly as a result of living in groups

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Homo erectus (1.8 million – 300,000 years ago)               

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Use of fire (500,000 years ago)

 ↙                ↘

Neanderthal (400,000 – 30,000 years ago) Homo sapiens (195,000 years ago – 2009)

                                             ↓

                       Homo sapiens in Europe (50,000 – 10,000 years ago)

 

   Graph 1. The evolution process of hominids discussed

 

1.2. Analysis of ancestors discussed:

The Australopithecus, driven by hard living conditions, adapted themselves to walk bipedally. With much bigger teeth than modern human beings, they generally lived on plants. Male and female differed greatly in shapes. For example, male could be 50% bigger than female according to an Entry on Australopithecus on Wikipedia (Net. 2.).

At around 2.4 million years ago, a part of the Australopithecus evolved to Homo habilis at the east coast of Africa. As described in What Evolution Is (Mayr 2001: 218-234), according to archaeological discovery, their fingers could grip precisely, which helped them to make and use simple stone tools as a turning point of human evolution. Besides, they were also able to hunt animals of medium size and make their own shelter, which suggested that they might have adopted group living at that time.

Then after 60,000 years’ evolution, Homo erectus appeared. The glacial period brought unbearable coldness and scarce food resources in Africa, which forced them to migrate to all over the world including Europe. Under such circumstances, the Homo erectus had long legs and arched feet well-suited for long-distance walking and running. Inspired by Nature in the form of lightning and fire hazard, they became acquainted with the use of fire. In addition, partly as a result of living in groups, they created a simple basic communication system of symbols. Neanderthals were evolved from Homo erectus, being able to apply sophisticated stone tools, such as flakes, to hunting.

Then, Homo sapiens gradually replaced Homo erectus. It was the closet hominid to the current human, having “capacity for art, symbolic thinking and full-blown language” (Net. 1.).

The evolution process above contained important changes covering from environment and human behaviors, which all accounted for the gradual evolution of gender roles in the following section.

 

2. Male and female roles in ancient world:

In the complex process of human evolution, ancestors had making continual adjustments of gender roles for a higher survival chance. Because male were usually of a bigger size and more physical strength than that of female, men in primitive societies undertook responsibilities of battling, carrying weight and hunting in the later period, whereas female were to pick edible plants and rear children. Outer factors played an important role in determining gender roles.

The biggest challenge for our prehistoric ancestors came from Nature. Tough living environment and endless dangers caused by other fierce animal competitors pushed them to fight and sometimes searched for a new residence. Under such circumstances, male’s aggressiveness and outstanding strength became a shield accounting for men’s role of protection. Women played a leading role at an early time when the small family or group depended wholly on their ability to conceive and raise children. At the vegetarian age, women played a comparably more vital role in families as a combination of not only food collector but also a mother.

Yet, at the discovery of possible control of fire and stone polishing, ancestors adopted a lifestyle of eating both plants and meat. It was at this point that men began to take predominance over women. According to “Man the Hunter” theory in the 20^th century, primitive society starting from Homo erectus was based on a hunter-gatherer model, where hunting was “the master behavior pattern of the human species” (Lee and Devore 1968: 85). Men actively hunted for food and defended their families, and women were mostly tied to their children and limited abilities of food collection. Women to some extent relied on male power. They sometimes offered sexual and reproductive capacities as a trade for male protection and food.

As a result of the innate difference between male and female, our ancestors allotted tasks according to each one’s ability and the strong shared food with the weak. Thus, though women of strength could still hunt for food like men, a large number of them tended to gather together and form a small community at home. Mental attachment grew within a small community, which paved the way for the future development of primitive tribes. As male polished sharp stones to create an advantage over fierce animals when they risked their lives to support their families and communities, female were restricted to the cave or other shelters.

In an East African site, archaeologists discovered “red clay sherds” used 1.42 million years ago, which suggested the clay had been heated to more than 700 ℉ (Net.  2.). It was an evidence that Homo erectus gained control of fire. Appreciating the great benefits brought by fire, they had to deal carefully with the preservation of fire. Since women were less important in food hunting, they took a new responsibility as the preserver of fire, which provided warmth in cold weathers and later acquired by human beings as a cooking method.

As for the development of social structure, female ancestors were key to the emergence of social tribes. Males usually remained silent in activities of hunting; the more relaxing jobs of picking up fruits and other plants of females created an urge to communicate, which later formed an especially unique feature of human beings — language. In addition, females acted as an emotional bridge since they were accompanied by other females and responsible for bringing up children. Due to their existence, human beings experience a transformation of a vast impact, which gathered individuals together to form groups and tribes.

In addition, as Whiten pointed out (Whiten 2000: 185-201), such a stable model of hunter-gatherer society was also the result of a proper allocation of gender roles. Our ancestors, by making advantage of physical and mental distinctions between male and female, constructed a society where men made hunting plans, leaving children and women at home without the need to worry about them, whereas women set their food-collecting plans in search of edible vegetations. In this way, a clear framework of gender roles made it possible for those ancient hominids gradually exhibited a superior intelligence, which helped to excel the other species and survived the harsh natural challenges.

In conclusion, a need to adjust to the living environment led our ancestors to find a most proper and balanced role between genders. Since males held a physical advantage towards females, they were responsible for energy-consuming work, such as hunting and protecting. Females, a connecting role within families and tribes, collected edible plants, reared kids, kept the fire and developed a communication system which eventually evolved to languages. As gender roles were adjusted accordingly through conscious or unconscious intentions of our ancestors, social structure was as well pushed forward for the mutual benefits of both genders and the prosperity of human beings.

 

3. Debates over gender roles of early ancestors:

Debates over gender roles of early ancestors mainly focused on finding a proper explanation for human behaviors. It was a way to explore behaviors of ourselves and societies. Routines of human development may also be analyzed and predicted as guidance for human development in the future.

For example, a hot debate called “Nature vs. Nurture” dealt with the source of differences in male and female behaviors. They not only conducted tests on our current society, they also searched for an answer from the evolution facts and behavior patterns of our ancestors. Through collecting and analyzing archeological discoveries, people endeavored to find out the root of differences between genders: genetic or environmental factors.

Feminists also tried to gain evidence to support their claim that it was nurture that valued more in aspects of how gender roles differed from each other. So in the 1970s, Women’s Movement suggested that the dominant factor should be environmental factors, which meant that boy’s aggressive tendencies could be of no difference than that of girls if he was raised in a mild environment of no violence and aggressiveness. Yet, as the researches continued and people learned more about prehistoric human beings, “nature” was again gained people’s preference. Studies had shown that inherent genetic factors which influenced human behaviors between genders might be the result of prehistoric gender differences in a hunting and gathering society.

Meanwhile, we may apply gender roles to explain women’s general verbal advantage. We can trace it to the prehistoric practices. As the essay discussed before, male role of hunting and battling required long time of focus and quietness. In this way, their verbal socializing ability was oppressed. On the contrary, when females gathered vegetations together, they communicated with each other and strengthened bounds within communities. Gradually their brains even developed the ability of multi-task.

That was, the debate and exploration on gender roles was to help people to observe behaviors and development of modern humans from an ancient perspective. Yet, it is notable that direct records and evidences of prehistoric ancestors were inaccessible to us. People are merely offered with obscure archeological findings which could only lead to analytical assumptions rather than undeniable facts. Gender differences are dealing with gender groups as a whole, ignoring a wide range of differences between individuals.

In conclusion, debates over roles of prehistoric males and females satisfied human’s interest to learn about our history and nature and give possible explanations to present social behaviors and problems between genders. However, an uncertainty of these hypotheses needs to be born in mind to observe these debates in a fair and objective manner.

 

Conclusion

In the evolution process discussed in this essay, our ancestors experienced various challenges posed by Nature. In their struggling for life, they gained the ability of using fire, tools and tribes gradually came into being. It also demanded people of different genders cooperated with each other by proper task allocation, sharing food with the weak and sticking together in face of dangers. In this way, different genders took different responsibilities to maintain the stability of their society and for a better chance to survive. At an early period, female was regarded as a more important role due to the great necessity for reproduction in a hard living environment. Faced with challenges from nature such as extremely bad weathers, prehistoric ancestors gained wisdom from dealing with problems in migrations and other living difficulties and different genders were allocated with different tasks to make the best of their innate abilities. Though conclusions over gender roles of ancient people were mostly based on limited archeological discoveries and assumptions, the phenomenon of discussions over this topic demonstrated modern people’s inquiry into our past and constant efforts to gain an in-depth knowledge of our current society.

 

Works Cited:

1. Lee, R. B. and Devore, I. Man the Hunter. New York: Aldine Publishing Company. (1968)
2. Mayr, E. What Evolution Is. New York: Basic Books. (2001)
3. Whiten, A. “Social Complexity and Social Intelligence.” The Nature of Intelligence. Ed. Goode, J. New York: Wiley. 185-201. (2000)
4. 1.Entry on Human Evolution Tree. (Retrieved November 28, 2014 from http://imgarcade.com/1/human-evolution-tree/)
5. 2. Entry on Australopithecus from Wikipedia. (Retrieved November 27, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australopithecus)

 

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