Seasonality and Sex Differences in Travel Distance and Resource Transport in Venezuelan Foragers

Abstract

The anthropological literature generally describes forager women as less mobile than men because of their child-care responsibilities and the energetic costs of reproduction. Examination of resource transport among the savanna Pumé of southwestern Venezuela reveals, in contrast, that for certain food resources travel distances and resource weights relative to body weights are greater for women than for men. Male foraging is often associated with greater travel distances, but men frequently walk unencumbered because hunting trips may exhibit low or zero food returns and hunters usually carry only a minimum tool kit. Women, who target highly predictable foods that can be collected in large quantities, frequently carry firewood, tools, and large baskets of food for extended distances during gathering. It appears that the consistent and large returns of female foraging underwrite the large energetic effort of men's hunting.