Sexual differences in the consumption of food by <em>Homo sapiens</em>: some speculations in archeogastronomy and the evolution of eating patterns

• Main Author: Graham Pont
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED) 2012-12-01
• Series: Cuadernos de investigación UNED
• Online Access: https://revistas.uned.ac.cr/index.php/cuadernos/article/view/1

En las sociedades tradicionales, los hombres son más propensos a consumir grandes cantidades de alimentos en unas pocas comidas diarias, mientras que las mujeres tienden a consumir pequeñas cantidades de comida, pero con más frecuencia durante el día. Aquí propongo la hipótesis de que este comportamiento tiene una base biológica, porque en las sociedades de cazadores-recolectores, los hombres hacían la caza en grandes áreas y comían abundantemente al obtener una presa, mientras que las mujeres se movían en una zona más restringida, recolectaban y con frecuencia comían de los pequeños alimentos hallados. Sugiero que en el sentido gastronómico, la orientación del hombre es extra-territorial y la orientación de la mujer es predominantemente intra-territorial. ABSTRACT In traditional societies, men are more likely to consume substantial amounts of food in a few daily meals, whereas women tend to consume smaller quantities of food but to do it more frequently during the day. Here I propose the hypothesis that this behavior has a biological basis because in hunting-gathering societies, it was the men who did the hunting over large areas and had to wait until a kill was made to eat (often a large amount of food in a single sitting), while women moved in a more restricted area, did the gathering and frequently ate some of the small pieces of food that they found. I suggest that in gastronomic and spatial terms, the orientation of the male is extra-territorial and the orientation of the female is predominantly intra-territorial.