VOA慢速英语--研究发现称石器时代的女性猎杀大型猎物

In the Stone Age Americas, a woman's place may have been on the hunt, a new study reports.

The study has archaeologists rethinking ideas about gender¹ roles in prehistoric² hunter-gatherer cultures. But some scientists are not so sure about the results.

The new study appeared this month in the publication Science Advances. Archaeologists involved in the research found the remains³ of a young woman at a 9,000-year-old burial site in Peru. She is buried with what appears to be a complete set of big-game hunting tools: spear points, scrapers, blades and more. "Big-game hunting" means the hunting of very large animals.

Researchers could not tell the individual's sex at the place where the remains were found. "We all just assumed it was a dude" or male, said University of California Davis archaeologist Randy Haas.

Around the site, the scientists told each other "he" must have been a great hunter, Haas said. "Maybe he was a big chief or a great warrior⁴ or something," the scientists would say.

But after studying the remains back at a laboratory, scientist Jim Watson of the University of Arizona said, "I think 'he' is a 'she.'"

"It definitely was a surprise for me," Haas added.

In nearly every hunter-gatherer culture studied, big-game hunting is done almost always by men. Scientists had guessed that, for the most part, that is how it has always been.

So, was this a special case? Or were prehistoric women hunters more common than thought?

These are hard questions to answer because these kinds of sites are hard to find.

"You don't just stumble across a burial like this every day," Haas said.

So, the researchers decided⁶ to look at published records from 50 years of past digs across North and South America.

They found that, out of 429 sets of remains, 16 males and 11 females were buried alongside big-game hunting gear. The numbers are not very different.

However, scientists in those studies did not identify many of these women as hunters. Haas notes that at some other sites, the tools were described not as hunting tools but as tools for preparing food or clothing, which were considered women's work.

In one case, a researcher questioned DNA⁷ results that identified the person as female just because the remains were found with hunting tools.

Sexism could be affecting such studies and results, Haas said.

Still, a lot can happen to a burial site in 9,000 years. Remains break down, and sex gets harder to identify. Also, objects found near an individual may not have been there when the body was buried. Of the 11 females found with hunting gear, scientists found the sex and connection with the tools for only three of them, including the one Haas' team found.

Archaeologist Ben Potter is with the Liaocheng University Arctic Studies Center in China. He said he does not believe the new study should affect "the extensive data on hunter-gatherer sexual division of labor⁵."

Other experts described the study as compelling.

Archaeologist Bill Hildebrandt said the study does a "good job" of showing that gender roles at the time may have been less official than in later times. Hildebrandt is with the Far Western Anthropological⁸ Research Group in California. He has studied an 8,000-year-old culture in Southern California that did not seem to have especially strong gender roles.

Looking at more recent hunter-gatherer cultures, "we would think that there wasn't much change in how men and women interacted with one another," Hildebrandt said. "But when you're willing to look at the old archaeological record, sometimes you find things you don't expect."

"That's why we do archaeology," he said, "to discover things that we didn't know."

Words in This Story

archaeologist - n. a scientist who studies past human life and activities by studying the bones, tools, etc., of ancient people

gender - n. the state of being male or female; sex.

role - n. the part that someone has in a family, society, or other group

site - n. a place that is used for a particular activity

assume - v. to think that something is true or probably true without knowing that it is true

stumble (upon) - v. to find or learn about something unexpectedly

compelling - adj. very interesting : able to capture and hold your attention

1 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

2 prehistoric   

adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的

参考例句：

• They have found prehistoric remains.他们发现了史前遗迹。
• It was rather like an exhibition of prehistoric electronic equipment.这儿倒像是在展览古老的电子设备。

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 warrior   

n.勇士，武士，斗士

参考例句：

• The young man is a bold warrior.这个年轻人是个很英勇的武士。
• A true warrior values glory and honor above life.一个真正的勇士珍视荣誉胜过生命。

5 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

8 anthropological   

adj.人类学的

参考例句：

• These facts of responsibility are an anthropological datums- varied and multiform. 这些道德事实是一种人类学资料——性质不同，形式各异。 来自哲学部分
• It is the most difficult of all anthropological data on which to "draw" the old Negro. 在所有的人类学资料中，最困难的事莫过于“刻划”古代的黑人。 来自辞典例句