Ok, that makes sense.
But still, it’s extremely hard for me to believe — as someone who has been pregnant, who breastfed and wore my baby in a sling a lot and who is knowledgeable about ancient lactation patterns and practices, who went hunting with my dad when I was a kid — that hunting was common for women in their childbearing years. It would have been damned hard.
Traditional hunting is already hard. Most days, hunters did not bring back meat. Most calories were collected by gathering, and that’s much more compatible with being pregnant and caring for an infant and/or other children.
I don’t have a problem believing women may have hunted at certain times in their lives, but I really question some of the statements made in that study.