Gender Roles In Ancient Civilizations

The Paleolithic period of the Stone Age began about 2.5 to 2 million years ago, marked by the earliest use of tools made of chipped stones. The Paleolithic period ended at different times in different parts of the world. The Neolithic age is the period of human culture that began about 10,000 years ago in the Middle East and later in other parts of the world. It is characterized by the launch of farming and the domestication of animals, the development of crafts, and the making of polished stone tools. During the Stone Age, civilization had not yet begun. People were pre-civilized. Since pre-history is history before writing and record keeping, it is impossible to know exactly what happened. According to Dr. James M. Adovasio, an expert

The presence of women in historical monuments also illustrate women’s roles as leaders of religious ceremonies. Women leaders acting as high priestesses may have performed a wide variety of things such as: mummifying bodies, or providing religious education for the community. Detailed in Theogony the progression from female-dominated generations; characterized by natural, earthy, emotional qualities, was replaced by supreme male gods of war and

Kuhn and Mary C. Stiner say that labor division by sex and age is a pretty new human invention. “Archaeological records show little evidence that Neanderthals, who went extinct roughly 24,000 years ago, divided economic roles by gender,” according to Kuhn and Stiner. Instead, everyone including male, female and children appear to have joined together in the most important work of this time: hunting and killing animals. "We find very little evidence for 'classic' female roles like harvesting vegetable foods or making hide clothing in the archaeological record of the Middle

Paleolithic," said Kuhn. Neanderthals lived to hunt. Meat made up most of their diet, and everyone worked together to get their food. In conclusion, there are a variety of different roles women could have played. For all we know, everyone could have done everything together and divided up work equally. If their primary source of food were large animals, it would be understandable that the whole community would participate. But since the Neolithic and Paleolithic ages were part of pre-history we have no clear evidence of who did what when, where, why, or