Abstract
In some small-scale societies, a sexual division of labor is common. For subadult hunter-gatherers, the onset of this division dates to middle childhood and the start of puberty; however, there is apparently no physiological explanation for this timing. The present study uses an experimental approach to evaluate possible energetic differences by sex in gathering-related activities. The energetic cost of gathering-related activities was measured in a sample of 42 subjects of both sexes aged between 8 and 14 years. Body mass and other anthropometric variables were also recorded. Our results show that the energetic differences in the simulated gathering activities depend only on body mass. Both sexes expend a similar amount of energy during locomotion activities related to gathering. Discarding the energetic factor, the sexual division of tasks may be explained as an adaptation to acquire the skills needed to undertake the complex activities required during adulthood as early as possible. Carrying out gathering activities during childhood and adolescence could be favored by the growth and development cycles of Homo sapiens. Moreover, if most of the energetic costs of gathering activities depend on body mass, the delayed growth in humans relative to other primates allows subadults to practice these tasks for longer periods, and to become better at performing them. In fact, this strategy could enable them to acquire adults’ complex skills at a low energetic cost that can be easily subsidized by other members of the group.
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Data Availability
Data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy restrictions.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are sincerely grateful to all the volunteers who participated in this experimental study, headed by Dr. A. Mateos. The research was performed at the CENIEH LabBioEM, Bioenergy and Motion Analysis Laboratory. Data were obtained from the EVOBREATH database, managed by A. Mateos and J. Rodríguez. We also acknowledge the assistance provided during the experimental tests by Cristina Esteban, and the help by Olalla Prado and Marco Vidal. An anonymous editor from Elsevier’s Language Services improved the English of the original manuscript. We are grateful to June-el Piper for her suggestions to improve the text.
Funding
Guillermo Zorrilla-Revilla benefited from a predoctoral research grant from Junta de Castilla y León EDU/602/2016 funded by Social European Fund, Operative Program of Junta de Castilla y León, through the Consejería de Educación.
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Conceptualization: Ana Mateos (PI), Jesús Rodríguez; Methodology: Ana Mateos, Jesús Rodríguez, Guillermo Zorrilla-Revilla; Investigation: Guillermo Zorrilla-Revilla; Formal Analysis: Guillermo Zorrilla-Revilla; Jesús Rodríguez; Writing-original draft: Guillermo Zorrilla-Revilla; Writing-review and editing: Ana Mateos, Jesús Rodríguez; Supervision: Ana Mateos, Jesús Rodríguez; Resources: Ana Mateos; Submission Project 1586 to the Ethical Committee: Ana Mateos.
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This experimental study has been approved by the Hospital Universitario de Burgos Ethical Committee (Burgos, Spain) (Ref. CEIC 1586), and complies with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Zorrilla-Revilla, G., Rodríguez, J. & Mateos, A. Gathering Is Not Only for Girls. Hum Nat 32, 582–602 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-021-09411-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-021-09411-x