Writer Starts A Viral Twitter Thread After Making Fun Of Historical “Discoveries” That Were Cracked Once Women Were Finally Allowed To Look At Them
It’s no secret that some disciplines are largely male-dominated. Take history and anthropology as examples and you see how enormous the gap of a male-oriented approach is, where little voice, if any, is given to women.
Recently, the ‘Rings Of Power’ writer Gennifer Hutchison pointed out this issue in a Twitter thread that went viral. “My favorite historical ‘discoveries’ are ones male anthropologists/historians just *can’t* figure out for YEARS that are swiftly answered by a woman when one is finally given access,” she wrote in a tweet three days ago.
The thread seems to have hit a soft spot in many people and an illuminating debate followed. “If everyone is looking at something from the same angle, we miss the full picture,” Hutchison concluded by pointing out the fact that science doesn’t give equal access to women’s opinion and representation, although it could largely benefit from it. Read on for the full thread below.
Writer Gennifer Hutchinson called out male scientists for not giving access to women who could swiftly explain the historical mysteries they can’t figure out
Image credits: GennHutchison
Image credits: GennHutchison
Image credits: GennHutchison
Image credits: GennHutchison
Image credits: GennHutchison
To find out more about why women are given so little access and voice in male-dominated professions, we spoke with Dr. Audrey Tang, an award-winning business author and broadcaster, as well as a leadership trainer and coach. Dr. Tang argues that in our society, the starting point for men and women are years apart.
“One solution to the meritocracy was suggested in an article which stated ‘Have universities offer places based on a lottery or ballot’… of course the solution was tongue in cheek,” Dr. Tang explained.
She added that “if you felt a twinge of ‘that’s not fair,’ that is exactly how unfair the meritocracy system can be to some.” Instead of claiming that women don’t work hard enough to have their voices heard, we’d better ask if women have had exactly the same opportunities to do so in the first place.
“It is certainly a start that we can begin to challenge our own biases and certainly pay men and women the same in the same job, BUT we could also start valuing what women and diversity, in general, brings to a boardroom table,” Dr. Tang explained.
Many people sided with the author of the thread, and shared their own insights into the issue
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Archaeological geneticists are trying to sequence ancient DNA from the dirt of cave floors to see which kinds of human ancestors may have lived there. This is without bone fragments; they figure DNA could be left in the dirt in amounts high enough to detect if people bled where they lived. They’ve been tying themselves in knots trying to explain how there could be blood on the cave floors - maybe a guy would occasionally cut himself sharpening a knife?? OR, and I’m just spitballing here, women menstruate and give birth; bleeding is not a rare event at all for women.
You know, that last part always gets me. There's this idea that women are weak and squeamish and that it's men who are emotionally "strong enough" who can deal with sights like lots of blood, and, like... women don't even need to do something dangerous to bleed profusely? I deal with blood every month, it's just everyday life for me...
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Thousand of years have been lived and women still experiencing it everyday. When will we learn
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I read another good example a few years ago. Archaeologists were excavating an ancient dwelling in Peru (or maybe Argentina?) and were puzzling the ritual significance of a raised earthen ring near the hearth, really flexing all the PhD derived ego, only for a local laborer to inform them it was a Guinea Pig corral.
I was once at a museum in Philadelphia while they had a Pompei exhibit on loan. There was this one case full of miscellaneous fishing tools, and among them was a set of several, small tools of different sizes. They were labeled as unknown, but the tag mentioned it was believed they were for used for fishing. They were not for fishing. They were netting needles for very fine lace. I had some exactly like them at home. The size of the needle is sort of important, and the size of netting that would be made with these would be so tiny the it would be useless for fishing, unless the Pompeiians were catching baby guppies. You never know, I suppose. More likely, the curators who had designed the display had seen other, similar-shaped tools from the era that they knew were used to make fishing nets. People still do use those same netting shuttles today to repair nets, but those are much larger. They're also usually made of wood, and the ones in the case were made of precious metal. Romans used to make small amounts of lace to put around the bottoms of hems, and sometimes they embroidered over the top of it. Lace is very old.
See that's why I'd assume not a fisherman's. Not many fishermen would have had the coin for precious metal repair tools. They would have gone with the basic disposable style. As they still do to this day. I'd say in this case nope the curator is correct... Unknown
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Re: the comment on large phones...Because I have arthritis, I bought an ergonomic mouse. It's sort of sideways so you don't have to torque your arm and wrist into an unnatural position. Unfortunately, it's bloody massive and my fingers can't reach the buttons or scroll wheel, so it's useless. There were no size choices, which is a staggeringly huge blind spot; even gloves come in sizes.
May I recommend a book for you? It's called Invisible Women and it talks about how the world is designed for men - from seatbelts to pamphlets on how to detect heart attacks to larger phones. It's a really great read.
Load More Replies...
Although I do agree that there is an 'overthinking' of stuff we don't know and these so called experts (how much is Shakespear or the Mona Lisa analysed to death??) and when in dount they ALWAYS seem to hit the 'religous' button when they're not sure I do think that there is another reason for the 28 days which is co-incidental to a woman's cycle. The moon. It gave our ancestors a guide to season. Does it explain and cover them all? I doubt it, and the 'personally calendar' idea is a great one. But still, I reckon the moon idea is a strong one.
I agree; the moon cycle seems more likely since it's a lot more regular/predictable then a menstrual cycle. Even if one doesn't normally have an irregular cycle, it can be disrupted by such things as illness/disease, extreme weight loss/lack of food, etc.
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I was at Mesa Verde in Colorado many years ago. The guide was showing the plastered walls of one of the settlements, and specifically where some of the plaster had chipped off revealing an artificially pockmarked stone surface underneath. Guide: "We don't know why the people roughened the surface of the stones of their buildings. It may have had some religious significance." Me: "Plaster sticks to rough surfaces a lot better than smooth ones." It seems some of us forget that ancient people were still PEOPLE, with the same concerns and the same intelligence as modern folks.
Women can't possibly know what was that tool used for, let's do mental gymnastics instead
Right?!?! The men are like “oh no, we mustn’t ask the women, their little brains might explode under the pressure of having to think” 🙄
Load More Replies... The best part is that most of these objects are very similar to their modern counterparts
"Why does this bone have 28 markings on it, 5 of which are in red? Is it the gods' holy days?" Women: B E C A U S E W E B L E E D
Man: what are these strange hoof-prints next to our wrecked garden? Zebras have been known to eat fresh vegetables... Woman: it's the neighbor's horse. See, it's still here eating my tomato plants. We need to get it out of here. Man: shut UP, Sharon! God, why are women so emotional about EVERYTHING!!! I don't care about the horse, there's a Zebra loose in our neighborhood! How did a Zebra even get into our neighborhood? There's no zoo nearby, THESE QUESTIONS NEED ANSWERS SHARON! Woman: I'll call the neighbors and have them come get Tony.
Consciously or not, male scientists tend to do their research with the purpose of finding in the past some justification for the unfair laws and the absurd traditions they somehow benefit from. Same goes with the study of nature, other species and especially ethology. Many popular theories about the power of "alpha male wolves" or the violent behaviour of apes have been consistently debunked, or at least relativized, from the moment women started to observe these species from another point of view, not necessarily focusing on what the most aggressive and impressive male of the group was up to. Jane Goodall is one of the first and most famous scientists to have improved our knowledge this way. Politically, this matters a lot, when you see how conservatives try to pretend their views are based on "the laws of nature"...
This kind of thing burns me. If you consider where humans are today in regards to science, history, healthcare, etc. and then understand that all of that progress came from a narrow slice of all humans that fit a narrow criteria i.e. being a male, having the right color of skin, having wealth or position, etc., it seems obvious that we have hampered ourselves just to fulfill some infantile need to feel that we are superior to someone else. We would not just be twice as far along as we are now. Because progress is built on previous discoveries and thoughts, we would be many times ahead. I think things like sexism, racism, homophobia, classism, etc. aren't taken seriously enough. We don't really measure or truly understand how much these things really hurt us. If we could contain the impact these ideas have on society, then we, as a species, would progress at a rate that is staggering compared to what we had previously done.
I always find the worst part was there was quite a few matriarchal societies and they were always successful. However they were always ganged up on by jealous neighbouring regions ... Every damn time. We discover more all the time. It's saddening.
Load More Replies...
Not really directly related to the topic but when they say we have no idea how they moved these 10 ton rocks, they definnately didn't use rolers. wooden rollers would sink in the soft ground. what they actually did was make sea weed paths so they could drag them easily.
I like to look at stadiums, large plazas, highly decorated buildings, and ponder what some archaeologist 10,000 years from now would make of it. Probably call them all ritual spaces or temples. That's assuming there are still humans and civilization on this planet.
Bold of you to assume a sports stadium isn't a ritual space.
Load More Replies... OK, so, I absolutely agree that we need representation across domains and so on, and some of these are very true. But: no archeologist ever wondered why months are 28-30 days. It's the moon cycle, usually. Some supposed calendars and various other stuff are period trackers, I'm sure, and I'm not even going to argue - for all I care all of them and our ancestors found a womb easier than looking up, sure. But even if so, the guys (possibly mistakenly) went for"moon". Not "gosh we really can't think why they'd count in 28 day cycles". We may be prejudiced and blind and all, but... Not stupid.
Or the “ritualistic object” that turned out to be a glove finger knitting tool. I literally have one.
In the United States 47.1% of all active archaeologists are women. They are a minority, but only slightly. This posting makes it appear as if women are not active participants except in rare moments. They are doing the work, collecting objects, interpreting the objects, and, perhaps, making inferences about behaviors associated with the objects. But inferences are just that...efforts to put a story behind the objects. But unless there is documentation about the behaviors, behavior is not an artifact. Theses inferences may be more or less logical, more or less accurate, without regard to gender. Remember that the scientist who discovered the largest and most complete remains of Tyrannosaurus Rex was a women, and the specimen is named "Sue" in her honor.
Many academics lack the practical side of things but I think (hope) are willing to listen when a person with hands on experience offers an explanation. It was male dominated and admittantly some have been pig headed even when presented with the obvious. This is changing. You can only get so far when only using half your people.
There was some TV special on the pyramids where they spent an hour and half foaming at the mouth about how everything lined up with Pi and this must be a sign that either aliens helped or the builders were trying to communicate all of this crazy complicated ritual stuff using celestial circles. Then in the last five or so minutes, this exasperated dude was like "OR, they were measuring with a wheel" You know, those little wheels on the end of a stick that you walk with while counting the turns, for measuring when the length is too long for a tape measure or rope.
Remainds me the Book "Foucault's Pendulum" when (I'will not be very precise on details) very old paper note with some old language was fond. Two man looking for a treasure thought it was a some coded hint. They made some realistic looking theory about what is said in that note. Then woman just looked at paper and recognized grocery shopping list written in Latin.
Umberto Eco is one of my favorite writers of all time.
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The calendar one though!! Like, really, what are men counting 28 days for? Women have had periods since before pads were even invented!
Well it would definitely be really weird if women only started having periods after pads were invented. What would they have been invented for?
Load More Replies... Not just battle of the sexes. It's battle of the cultures too. If any of these so called scientists took the time to sit down with humans/tribes/elders when they found these items, they would already have the answers. Catholicism/Christianity changed how different sexes and races treated eachother. Before that, it was based on status in those communities. Didn't matter what sex or race anyone were.
I agree with most of these, but I am not 100 on the period trackers. Those 28-day calendars could very well have been for menstrual cycles, but moon phases are also 28 days. That seems just as likely, if not more so to me. That said, even if it was moon cycles it is just as likely that a woman created them as a man.
I'm not sure if this is true, but a professor in the history of science once told me that lots of anthropologists studied the phenomenon ‘rain dance’. All of them came up with explanations like religious or social rituals. Nobody ever bothered to check if it causes rain.
Duh, you bet it's a sacred day every 28 days to a woman! Like, life-changing sacred.
My brother's degree is in Anthropology. His professor told the class if they didn't know what something was, they called it a ceremonial object.
The 28-mark one got me, because I am very comfortable talking menstruation and to date I have NEVER MET A WOMAN whose menstrual period came every 28 days. (Well, the odd one that either came early or late and got posted about "wow 28 days exactly LMFAO") I'm inclined to believe that measurement comes from 4×7= 28 being some simpleminded person's estimation of a month because it doesn't fit any human woman's cycle that I know of...
I mean, there's the moon cycle that's 28 days. You know, the thing months are based on. That's pretty regular.
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My wife calls it a caboodle. I call it a tackle box. Future historians would only be getting half the story either way.
I think most of these misinterpretations are due to bias (not necessarily genderbased) or simply lack of knowledge. There was a time most people would have recognized a drop spindle but nowadays, people struggle to know where basic things come from and the tools involved in making them. I wouldn't recognize a leathermaking tool out of context. I like those "back in time" series where people try to recreate living in other era's but at the same time, I'm very much aware we can only do so with our 21st century mindset. An example: in recreating a household of the 19th century, one of the kids got a cold. The family had a guide (written in that era) and the mother had to go through a few of the remedies to find one without cocaine or heroin. Different people have different views/backgrounds and maybe tis list is an appeal for a more diverse group or to look at different domains for other interpretations. Or when is a pot sharf not a pot sharf?
I think the last one of the list is 100% correct. This isn't a matter of men vs women, it's a matter of the arrogance of scientists, archaeologists and anthropologists. These are people who sacrificed years of their lives studying everything we know about ancient civilizations, and now are off in the field or in labs trying to discover new stuff and go down in history over it... and because they want to go down in history, they want to discover a mysterious tool used in religious ceremony to communicate with savage gods... not an ancient fork. It's just bias. As to why most female scientists of those fields aren't like that... well, someone who has to fight every single day just to be taken seriously in a male dominated environment will either not develop enough arrogance to create this bias, or become so desperate for recognition they'll make the same mistake. (not saying having to fight for basic recognition in your field of study is good. It's just a theory on why stuff happens.)
What gets me is that Every Single Book about the beginning of civilization says that "man domesticated animals" and I don't believe that. Men were off hunting, so they weren't finding orphan animals in the bushes, and if they had, they would have brought it home for dinner. Women were gathering food (in the bushes) and if they found an orphan animal, they could have brought it back. Also, they could have fed it breast milk to keep it alive. WOMEN domesticated animals.
George Carlin said that any time people pulled in "god" ("ritual") it meant they didn't know.
Most of these are just flat out assertions though. Interesting, if true, but nothing is offered to back it up.
"hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" - everyone can agree with this phrase, yet when we find female warriors, historians go "yeaaaah, nah". It's just mind boggling how academic atrophies the brain.
Moon phases last 28 days. That would be the basis for measuring time in 28-days increments, not menstrual cycle (which isn't the same lenght for every woman and doesn't have to be the same lenght for one woman every time).
Accident ritual object=crafting item=ancient ritual object. Crafting is definitely a ritual.
Fixed time markers of 28 days came about due to the moon's approx 28 day cycle. Needing to mark where you are within that 28 days is more of a female function as we don't all get our period on the full moon. However, this also assumes that the society these come from also had food security as malnourishment leads to irregular or missing periods.
I think it would be equally important for men to track the menstrual cycle too, so they can go walkabout for a few days each month...
Maybe this is how religion stayed too. Not just from our not being able to understand the world so just saying "god" did everything, but also finding these items that may have been once forgotten and thinking religion has been around forever, which just makes it a norm and thus makes it more likely for people to just keep doing it.
Also some of these tweets are sexist as s**t, even more so that the people they are allegedly decrying. Like the ONLY WOMEN WANT GOOD THINGS MEN JUST WANNA LIVE IN SHAMBLES INSTEAD OF HUTS AND HOUSES or the MEN DONT NEED LANGUAGE TO HUNT (what???) ONLY WOMEN TO TAKE CARE OF CHILDREN (not to mention that this is upholding the godamn Victorian sexist assumed division of labour thats based on nothing while the inverse was true tribal humans were not particularly sexist division of labour wise on average)
What else could be 28 days? A sane calendar. 7 days x 4 weeks x 13 months + 1 or 2 "extra" days would work perfectly well. Check out Tolkien's Silmarillion (sp?) for an example.
The objects in reference were from before they had standard 7 day week and 12 month calendars.
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Archaeological geneticists are trying to sequence ancient DNA from the dirt of cave floors to see which kinds of human ancestors may have lived there. This is without bone fragments; they figure DNA could be left in the dirt in amounts high enough to detect if people bled where they lived. They’ve been tying themselves in knots trying to explain how there could be blood on the cave floors - maybe a guy would occasionally cut himself sharpening a knife?? OR, and I’m just spitballing here, women menstruate and give birth; bleeding is not a rare event at all for women.
You know, that last part always gets me. There's this idea that women are weak and squeamish and that it's men who are emotionally "strong enough" who can deal with sights like lots of blood, and, like... women don't even need to do something dangerous to bleed profusely? I deal with blood every month, it's just everyday life for me...
Load More Replies... Thousand of years have been lived and women still experiencing it everyday. When will we learn
Load More Replies... I read another good example a few years ago. Archaeologists were excavating an ancient dwelling in Peru (or maybe Argentina?) and were puzzling the ritual significance of a raised earthen ring near the hearth, really flexing all the PhD derived ego, only for a local laborer to inform them it was a Guinea Pig corral.
I was once at a museum in Philadelphia while they had a Pompei exhibit on loan. There was this one case full of miscellaneous fishing tools, and among them was a set of several, small tools of different sizes. They were labeled as unknown, but the tag mentioned it was believed they were for used for fishing. They were not for fishing. They were netting needles for very fine lace. I had some exactly like them at home. The size of the needle is sort of important, and the size of netting that would be made with these would be so tiny the it would be useless for fishing, unless the Pompeiians were catching baby guppies. You never know, I suppose. More likely, the curators who had designed the display had seen other, similar-shaped tools from the era that they knew were used to make fishing nets. People still do use those same netting shuttles today to repair nets, but those are much larger. They're also usually made of wood, and the ones in the case were made of precious metal. Romans used to make small amounts of lace to put around the bottoms of hems, and sometimes they embroidered over the top of it. Lace is very old.
See that's why I'd assume not a fisherman's. Not many fishermen would have had the coin for precious metal repair tools. They would have gone with the basic disposable style. As they still do to this day. I'd say in this case nope the curator is correct... Unknown
Load More Replies... Re: the comment on large phones...Because I have arthritis, I bought an ergonomic mouse. It's sort of sideways so you don't have to torque your arm and wrist into an unnatural position. Unfortunately, it's bloody massive and my fingers can't reach the buttons or scroll wheel, so it's useless. There were no size choices, which is a staggeringly huge blind spot; even gloves come in sizes.
May I recommend a book for you? It's called Invisible Women and it talks about how the world is designed for men - from seatbelts to pamphlets on how to detect heart attacks to larger phones. It's a really great read.
Load More Replies... Although I do agree that there is an 'overthinking' of stuff we don't know and these so called experts (how much is Shakespear or the Mona Lisa analysed to death??) and when in dount they ALWAYS seem to hit the 'religous' button when they're not sure I do think that there is another reason for the 28 days which is co-incidental to a woman's cycle. The moon. It gave our ancestors a guide to season. Does it explain and cover them all? I doubt it, and the 'personally calendar' idea is a great one. But still, I reckon the moon idea is a strong one.
I agree; the moon cycle seems more likely since it's a lot more regular/predictable then a menstrual cycle. Even if one doesn't normally have an irregular cycle, it can be disrupted by such things as illness/disease, extreme weight loss/lack of food, etc.
Load More Replies... I was at Mesa Verde in Colorado many years ago. The guide was showing the plastered walls of one of the settlements, and specifically where some of the plaster had chipped off revealing an artificially pockmarked stone surface underneath. Guide: "We don't know why the people roughened the surface of the stones of their buildings. It may have had some religious significance." Me: "Plaster sticks to rough surfaces a lot better than smooth ones." It seems some of us forget that ancient people were still PEOPLE, with the same concerns and the same intelligence as modern folks.
Women can't possibly know what was that tool used for, let's do mental gymnastics instead
Right?!?! The men are like “oh no, we mustn’t ask the women, their little brains might explode under the pressure of having to think” 🙄
Load More Replies... The best part is that most of these objects are very similar to their modern counterparts
"Why does this bone have 28 markings on it, 5 of which are in red? Is it the gods' holy days?" Women: B E C A U S E W E B L E E D
Man: what are these strange hoof-prints next to our wrecked garden? Zebras have been known to eat fresh vegetables... Woman: it's the neighbor's horse. See, it's still here eating my tomato plants. We need to get it out of here. Man: shut UP, Sharon! God, why are women so emotional about EVERYTHING!!! I don't care about the horse, there's a Zebra loose in our neighborhood! How did a Zebra even get into our neighborhood? There's no zoo nearby, THESE QUESTIONS NEED ANSWERS SHARON! Woman: I'll call the neighbors and have them come get Tony.
Consciously or not, male scientists tend to do their research with the purpose of finding in the past some justification for the unfair laws and the absurd traditions they somehow benefit from. Same goes with the study of nature, other species and especially ethology. Many popular theories about the power of "alpha male wolves" or the violent behaviour of apes have been consistently debunked, or at least relativized, from the moment women started to observe these species from another point of view, not necessarily focusing on what the most aggressive and impressive male of the group was up to. Jane Goodall is one of the first and most famous scientists to have improved our knowledge this way. Politically, this matters a lot, when you see how conservatives try to pretend their views are based on "the laws of nature"...
This kind of thing burns me. If you consider where humans are today in regards to science, history, healthcare, etc. and then understand that all of that progress came from a narrow slice of all humans that fit a narrow criteria i.e. being a male, having the right color of skin, having wealth or position, etc., it seems obvious that we have hampered ourselves just to fulfill some infantile need to feel that we are superior to someone else. We would not just be twice as far along as we are now. Because progress is built on previous discoveries and thoughts, we would be many times ahead. I think things like sexism, racism, homophobia, classism, etc. aren't taken seriously enough. We don't really measure or truly understand how much these things really hurt us. If we could contain the impact these ideas have on society, then we, as a species, would progress at a rate that is staggering compared to what we had previously done.
I always find the worst part was there was quite a few matriarchal societies and they were always successful. However they were always ganged up on by jealous neighbouring regions ... Every damn time. We discover more all the time. It's saddening.
Load More Replies... Not really directly related to the topic but when they say we have no idea how they moved these 10 ton rocks, they definnately didn't use rolers. wooden rollers would sink in the soft ground. what they actually did was make sea weed paths so they could drag them easily.
I like to look at stadiums, large plazas, highly decorated buildings, and ponder what some archaeologist 10,000 years from now would make of it. Probably call them all ritual spaces or temples. That's assuming there are still humans and civilization on this planet.
Bold of you to assume a sports stadium isn't a ritual space.
Load More Replies... OK, so, I absolutely agree that we need representation across domains and so on, and some of these are very true. But: no archeologist ever wondered why months are 28-30 days. It's the moon cycle, usually. Some supposed calendars and various other stuff are period trackers, I'm sure, and I'm not even going to argue - for all I care all of them and our ancestors found a womb easier than looking up, sure. But even if so, the guys (possibly mistakenly) went for"moon". Not "gosh we really can't think why they'd count in 28 day cycles". We may be prejudiced and blind and all, but... Not stupid.
Or the “ritualistic object” that turned out to be a glove finger knitting tool. I literally have one.
In the United States 47.1% of all active archaeologists are women. They are a minority, but only slightly. This posting makes it appear as if women are not active participants except in rare moments. They are doing the work, collecting objects, interpreting the objects, and, perhaps, making inferences about behaviors associated with the objects. But inferences are just that...efforts to put a story behind the objects. But unless there is documentation about the behaviors, behavior is not an artifact. Theses inferences may be more or less logical, more or less accurate, without regard to gender. Remember that the scientist who discovered the largest and most complete remains of Tyrannosaurus Rex was a women, and the specimen is named "Sue" in her honor.
Many academics lack the practical side of things but I think (hope) are willing to listen when a person with hands on experience offers an explanation. It was male dominated and admittantly some have been pig headed even when presented with the obvious. This is changing. You can only get so far when only using half your people.
There was some TV special on the pyramids where they spent an hour and half foaming at the mouth about how everything lined up with Pi and this must be a sign that either aliens helped or the builders were trying to communicate all of this crazy complicated ritual stuff using celestial circles. Then in the last five or so minutes, this exasperated dude was like "OR, they were measuring with a wheel" You know, those little wheels on the end of a stick that you walk with while counting the turns, for measuring when the length is too long for a tape measure or rope.
Remainds me the Book "Foucault's Pendulum" when (I'will not be very precise on details) very old paper note with some old language was fond. Two man looking for a treasure thought it was a some coded hint. They made some realistic looking theory about what is said in that note. Then woman just looked at paper and recognized grocery shopping list written in Latin.
Umberto Eco is one of my favorite writers of all time.
Load More Replies... The calendar one though!! Like, really, what are men counting 28 days for? Women have had periods since before pads were even invented!
Well it would definitely be really weird if women only started having periods after pads were invented. What would they have been invented for?
Load More Replies... Not just battle of the sexes. It's battle of the cultures too. If any of these so called scientists took the time to sit down with humans/tribes/elders when they found these items, they would already have the answers. Catholicism/Christianity changed how different sexes and races treated eachother. Before that, it was based on status in those communities. Didn't matter what sex or race anyone were.
I agree with most of these, but I am not 100 on the period trackers. Those 28-day calendars could very well have been for menstrual cycles, but moon phases are also 28 days. That seems just as likely, if not more so to me. That said, even if it was moon cycles it is just as likely that a woman created them as a man.
I'm not sure if this is true, but a professor in the history of science once told me that lots of anthropologists studied the phenomenon ‘rain dance’. All of them came up with explanations like religious or social rituals. Nobody ever bothered to check if it causes rain.
Duh, you bet it's a sacred day every 28 days to a woman! Like, life-changing sacred.
My brother's degree is in Anthropology. His professor told the class if they didn't know what something was, they called it a ceremonial object.
The 28-mark one got me, because I am very comfortable talking menstruation and to date I have NEVER MET A WOMAN whose menstrual period came every 28 days. (Well, the odd one that either came early or late and got posted about "wow 28 days exactly LMFAO") I'm inclined to believe that measurement comes from 4×7= 28 being some simpleminded person's estimation of a month because it doesn't fit any human woman's cycle that I know of...
I mean, there's the moon cycle that's 28 days. You know, the thing months are based on. That's pretty regular.
Load More Replies... My wife calls it a caboodle. I call it a tackle box. Future historians would only be getting half the story either way.
I think most of these misinterpretations are due to bias (not necessarily genderbased) or simply lack of knowledge. There was a time most people would have recognized a drop spindle but nowadays, people struggle to know where basic things come from and the tools involved in making them. I wouldn't recognize a leathermaking tool out of context. I like those "back in time" series where people try to recreate living in other era's but at the same time, I'm very much aware we can only do so with our 21st century mindset. An example: in recreating a household of the 19th century, one of the kids got a cold. The family had a guide (written in that era) and the mother had to go through a few of the remedies to find one without cocaine or heroin. Different people have different views/backgrounds and maybe tis list is an appeal for a more diverse group or to look at different domains for other interpretations. Or when is a pot sharf not a pot sharf?
I think the last one of the list is 100% correct. This isn't a matter of men vs women, it's a matter of the arrogance of scientists, archaeologists and anthropologists. These are people who sacrificed years of their lives studying everything we know about ancient civilizations, and now are off in the field or in labs trying to discover new stuff and go down in history over it... and because they want to go down in history, they want to discover a mysterious tool used in religious ceremony to communicate with savage gods... not an ancient fork. It's just bias. As to why most female scientists of those fields aren't like that... well, someone who has to fight every single day just to be taken seriously in a male dominated environment will either not develop enough arrogance to create this bias, or become so desperate for recognition they'll make the same mistake. (not saying having to fight for basic recognition in your field of study is good. It's just a theory on why stuff happens.)
What gets me is that Every Single Book about the beginning of civilization says that "man domesticated animals" and I don't believe that. Men were off hunting, so they weren't finding orphan animals in the bushes, and if they had, they would have brought it home for dinner. Women were gathering food (in the bushes) and if they found an orphan animal, they could have brought it back. Also, they could have fed it breast milk to keep it alive. WOMEN domesticated animals.
George Carlin said that any time people pulled in "god" ("ritual") it meant they didn't know.
Most of these are just flat out assertions though. Interesting, if true, but nothing is offered to back it up.
"hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" - everyone can agree with this phrase, yet when we find female warriors, historians go "yeaaaah, nah". It's just mind boggling how academic atrophies the brain.
Moon phases last 28 days. That would be the basis for measuring time in 28-days increments, not menstrual cycle (which isn't the same lenght for every woman and doesn't have to be the same lenght for one woman every time).
Accident ritual object=crafting item=ancient ritual object. Crafting is definitely a ritual.
Fixed time markers of 28 days came about due to the moon's approx 28 day cycle. Needing to mark where you are within that 28 days is more of a female function as we don't all get our period on the full moon. However, this also assumes that the society these come from also had food security as malnourishment leads to irregular or missing periods.
I think it would be equally important for men to track the menstrual cycle too, so they can go walkabout for a few days each month...
Maybe this is how religion stayed too. Not just from our not being able to understand the world so just saying "god" did everything, but also finding these items that may have been once forgotten and thinking religion has been around forever, which just makes it a norm and thus makes it more likely for people to just keep doing it.
Also some of these tweets are sexist as s**t, even more so that the people they are allegedly decrying. Like the ONLY WOMEN WANT GOOD THINGS MEN JUST WANNA LIVE IN SHAMBLES INSTEAD OF HUTS AND HOUSES or the MEN DONT NEED LANGUAGE TO HUNT (what???) ONLY WOMEN TO TAKE CARE OF CHILDREN (not to mention that this is upholding the godamn Victorian sexist assumed division of labour thats based on nothing while the inverse was true tribal humans were not particularly sexist division of labour wise on average)
What else could be 28 days? A sane calendar. 7 days x 4 weeks x 13 months + 1 or 2 "extra" days would work perfectly well. Check out Tolkien's Silmarillion (sp?) for an example.
The objects in reference were from before they had standard 7 day week and 12 month calendars.
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