The Meanings and Dividends of Man the Hunter

The phrase Man the Hunter is associated with disparate meanings across communities of scholars, journalists, and the public, which has led to unnecessary scientific disagreement and popular misunderstanding. In this paper, we ask: what does Man the Hunter mean? We distinguish three historical meanings of Man the Hunter. First, in the early-to-mid 20th century, popular writers propagated ideas of human evolution that focused on hunting, men, aggression, rigid sexual divisions of labor, and immutable sex differences. These ideas gained widespread acceptance in popular circles and continue to be influential, but were rejected by anthropologists as early as the 1950s. Second, the Man the Hunter conference (1966)…