User:Katherinegaffney/sandbox/My sandbox: Gathering Hypothesis

=The Gathering Hypothesis=

The gathering hypothesis is an evolutionary psychological term that explains the advent of modern human evolution using the beginning of tool usage to make gathering more efficient. David Buss argues that tools were not used for hunting initially, but instead to dig up and gather plants. It is possible the invention of tools explains the transition from a forest habitat to the savanna woodlands and grasslands. Tools made gathering food easier and more economical enabling ancestral humans to live in a sparser environment. It was not until the invention of receptacles to store food that more elaborate tools used to hunt, skin, and butcher were developed. According to the gathering hypothesis hunting had no major role in the evolution of modern humans. One of the sources of evidence for the Gathering Hypothesis is in the alleged “Superior Spatial Memory of Women.” McBurney et al. found that women perform better on memory tasks than males whereas men perform better on rotation tasks. Hawkes furthers the argument for the Gathering Hypothesis in that women obtain larger fitness benefits by tending to their offspring, thus they provision, because it is simpler to coordinate gathering and offspring care.

The gathering hypothesis cannot account for:
Sexual division of labor (evolutionary perspective)in men hunting and women gathering High parental investmentof human males Male Coalition Psychology Why humans live in environments without plant resources Human gut structure versus Primate gut structure Reciprocal alliances (alliance theory) Why women share food