NEANDERTHALS DIVIDED THE WORK BY SEX

Throughout the history of our species “Homo sapiens”, one of the features that differentiated us from earlier species is that, in hunter-gatherer societies as it still happens in villages of Tanzania, the work is divided by sex. However, a group of researchers of the National Museum of Sciences has found evidences that show that this division by sex is not only given in our species, but also in the previous one, the Neanderthals. One of the proofs is found in the teeth, because these were used as a fundamental tool in order to hold fur or flesh. The results reveal that women present more and longer stretch marks than men do, moreover they have different lesions in the enamel and dentin. This demonstrates that women might have developed tasks related with the treatment of skins and wood, while men have engaged in the manufacture of stone tools and its retouching.

Are we then so different from an extinct human species which lived about 35000 years ago, that -as we- had a culture, made drawings and used symbols, which points to a complex thought? 

• WEBGRAPHY:

http://elpais.com/elpais/2015/02/18/ciencia/1424247255_571984.html

 http://www.elmundo.es/ciencia/2015/02/18/54e48e07ca4741c7418b4571.html