The Creation of Men and Women in Hunter-Gatherer Societies

In evolutionary biology, male and female tend to be defined very simply—males are the category of individuals that produce the smaller, relatively mobile gametes (sperm), while females are the ones who produce the larger, less mobile games (ova or eggs). In human societies, however, the categories of ‘man’ and ‘woman’, do not follow solely from biological differences, but are also associated with behavioral roles and social identity within groups. Across many hunter-gatherer and other small-scale societies, young boys and girls would commonly be socialized through ritual processes to be considered full-fledged men and women.

The Rite of the First Kill was of particular importance among the !Kung hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari. A !Kung boy was not allowed to marry until he had killed his first large game animal and undergone the Rite, where he was ritually scarified by his father or other kinsman. For !Kung girls, their passage into womanhood was marked at their first menstruation, as is common across hunter-gatherer societies more broadly. Anthropologist Lorna Marshall writes that at this ceremony,

The girl is isolated in a special scherm for the duration of the flow only. She must be covered by a kaross because the sun must not shine upon her, and her feet must not touch the ground. When she must go out to urinate or defecate, she is carried on the back of the old woman (not her mother) who attends her. It is not the menstrual blood but the girl herself who must be kept from touching the ground. She would get thin if she disregarded this taboo. Men and boys must not look at the girl and she must not look at them lest the men become highly visible to animals and unable to get near enough to them to shoot.

Among Andaman Islanders, as part of the initiation process, “Every boy and girl has to undergo the operation of scarification. This is begun when the child is quite young, and a small portion of the body is operated on. The operation is repeated at intervals during childhood, until the whole body has been scarified.” And further,

In the case of a girl the period of childhood is brought to a close by a ceremony that takes place on the occasion of her first menstrual discharge…On the occurrence of the first menstrual discharge the girl tells her parents, who weep over her. She must then go and bathe in the sea for an hour or two by herself. After that she goes back to her parents hut or to a special shelter that is put up for the occasion… She may not speak nor sleep for 24 hours. Her wants are attended to by her parents and their friends, who sit near her to keep her from falling asleep…The girl sits thus for three days. Early every morning she leaves the hut to bathe for an hour in the sea. At the end of the three days she resumes her life in the village. For a month following she must bathe in the sea every morning at dawn…On the occasion of this ceremony the girl is given a new name, her “flower-name,” and from this time till after the birth of her first child she is never addressed or spoken of by the name which she had as a child, but only by the name given to her at this ceremony.

Girls are often segregated and even hidden away at their first menstruation, as they, by virtue of their condition, are considered particularly powerful or dangerous at this time. Among the Tlingit of Alaska, “Almost the most important event in a woman’s life was her first menstruation, for her conduct during her long puberty confinement was supposed to influence not only her own future life for good or ill, but the fortunes of her relatives and of her future husband. For this reason she was surrounded by taboos and enjoined to perform magical tasks.” In the first few days she wasn’t supposed to eat or drink, and she would remain relatively isolated from the rest of the group for months, while being taught important lessons or practical skills that women must know. Anthropologist Frederica de Laguna writes that, “During the remainder of her period of seclusion, the girl was given various tasks to perform, not only to educate her in a practical way but as a magical “training.” For example, “When I was in the tent, they ripped sheets and I had to sew them. I just had a a quilt of my mother’s. I don’t know how many times she ripped it and I had to sew it together again.””

Anthropologist Jane Goodale describes a girl’s first menstrual rituals among the Tiwi of Australia, writing that,

During her first menstrual period the [young girl] is removed from the general camp and makes a new camp in the bush with a number of other women. Her companions usually include her mother, her co-wives, and any other senior women in her residential group. No men are allowed in this camp. [She] and her female companions remain in the bush camp for five to ten days. During this time [she] cannot dig yams, or gather or cook any food. Nor may she touch any food with her hands, but must either use a stick or have someone place the food in her mouth, for if she did any of these things, she would “by and by swell up.” She cannot touch any water, even in a container, but must wait for someone of lift the container to her lips, for otherwise she would fall ill. She cannot scratch herself with her fingers, but must use a stick, because later her arm might break. She cannot make a fire, for the flames might singe her arm and cause it to break at some future time. Breaking a stick in two is taboo, for it would cause her legs to break.

There was an intense and extensive ritual process for Tiwi boys as well, “it was a long drawn-out and elaborate affair, marked by successive stages or grades which began with the status of Marukumarni, which a boy entered when he was about fourteen, and did not end finally until he was around twenty-four.” The initiation began with a mock abduction when the boy was an early teen. Anthropologists Charles Hart and Arnold Piling write that,

Though the father instigated and stage managed the whole affair, he and his household were always thunderstruck when the cross-cousins—armed to the teeth and painted like a war party—arrived at his camp one evening and proceeded to carry off forcibly the yelling 14-year-old. He had to be dragged literally from the bosom of his family, with his mother screaming and trying to hide him and the father pretending to resist the invaders of his household. From then on, until the final stage (Mikingula) at age 24–26, the boy was completely under the authority of the men who carried him off. During these approximately ten to twelve years, he spent much of the time alone with them in the bush where the group lived a monastic existence, as a small band of isolates, speaking to no one (especially not to females) and obtaining their own food. During these phases the tutors guarded the boy as if he were literally a prisoner and taught him all the things—chiefly ritual matters—that grown men should know. At intervals the youth was allowed to go home, on week-end leaves so to speak, but when at home he had to observe all the silences, the modest demeanor, the taboos and the austerities of the isolated life. In monastic language, he was under a strict rule of obedience to his tutors.

While the Naskapi of Canada were said to not have had elaborate formal rituals of inititiation, anthropologist Julius Lips notes that, “the young hunter who passes the test of courage by killing a bear is henceforth regarded and treated as a man...if he happens to be the eldest son it is now he...who will inherit the hunting-ground.”

It is only after going through such trials or initiation processes that a boy attains the higher status that comes with manhood. Among the Aranda of Australia, “Boys are not allowed to handle real boomerangs, spears, or shields before they have undergone the first initiation ceremony. If they did so, the offence would be looked upon as an insult to the dignity of the men who have qualified and are thus entitled to the privilege of carrying such weapons on parade. The offence is in fact, on a point of decorum, similar to the case of a fellow in the ‘rank and file’ wearing the sword or insignia of his superior officer.””

While young women’s rituals are often oriented around menstruation, young men’s are more often associated with the hunt, or in some cases the introduction of spirit beings and the dynamics of the men’s secret cult. Among the Ona of Tierra del Fuego, anthropologist John Cooper writes that,

The adolescent boy is taken from his mother and obliged to fast and to undergo other physical and psychical tests. Endurance and stoicism, generosity, honesty, veracity, bravery, the duty of blood-revenge, observance of the marriage laws against incest and adultery, and other tribal virtues are solemnly inculcated. The grown men paint and dress up in masks to represent spirits, and proceed to terrorize the women and children and to test the courage of the boy candidate. Finally the boy, if found worthy, is told the truth about the supposed spirits and the purpose of the masquerading, namely, to keep the women in subjection, and he is threatened with dire punishment if he should ever reveal the secrets to the women or children.

Similarly, among the Hadza of East Africa, after a young man demonstrated success in hunting he would go through a deceptive ritual process and be allowed to join the men’s secret epeme feasts, where they consume the most desirable portions of various large game animals while hidden away from the women and children, with the story given that it was the epeme spirits consuming the meat.

We can see that these initiation practices revolve around socializing girls and boys to become responsible women and men, who will learn to fill their necessary obligations and social roles. In some societies, some individuals may even grow up filling an opposite-sex role. Anthropologist Will Roscoe writes that, "among Inuit and Athabaskan-speaking groups of the arctic and subarctic females were sometimes raised in accordance with names of male ancestors chosen for them before their birth, or they were given a male or mixed gender assignment because their family lacked or desired a son." Some societies also had social roles for ‘masculine’ women, or ‘feminine’ men, such as the ‘manly-hearted’ women of the northern Plains groups of Native America.

To be a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’ in many societies does not simply reflect a biological imperative, but is a social role that must be cultivated and developed through ritual. This is not to deny the relevance of biological factors—there is a reason why it is women commonly associated with menstruation, for example, and men are more commonly associated with the hunt. Yet there are complex social processes and notions of identity at work that go far beyond biology alone, along with cross-culturally varying beliefs about what it means to be a ‘man’ or ‘woman’.