Tell-tales of war: Traditional stories highlight how ancient women survived
Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - 09:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Through the ages, women have suffered greatly because of wars. Consequently, to protect themselves and their offspring, our female ancestors may have evolved survival strategies specific to problems posed by warfare, says Michelle Scalise Sugiyama of the University of Oregon in the US. Her findings, based on the comprehensive analysis of traditional stories from across the world, are published in Springer's journal Human Nature. The work is of interest because research to date has focused on the problems warfare poses for men, and how these problems shaped human male cognition.