Did women cook the food in the Palaeolithic?

Thanks to Dr Emma Pomeroy for the answer!

Will - To answer this question, we are picking the brains of paleoanthropologist at the University of Cambridge, Dr. Emma Pomeroy.

Emma - I mean, this is a really good question, and I think unfortunately the answer is that we don't know. The question itself does reflect some of our assumptions, and actually if we look at the ethnographic record, so what recent forager societies do, actually we see both men and women cooking food and quite often cooking food on the go. If they find some tubers or if they hunt a small animal, they'll make a small fire and cook the food and eat it as they're moving around.

Will - Did they bring more substantial things back? Would that be a different case then? Would they need to cook that on site?

Emma - Yeah, I mean, sometimes food is brought back to an essential place and might be cooked with a more substantial fire. But quite often I think we see that it's both men and women getting involved in that. So all members of the community. There's also the question of whether we can actually assume that any kind of gender roles and gender division of labour actually applied in the past as well. And again, that's been pretty controversial. People have tried to look at whether we can see differences from the skeleton in what men and women are doing. But linking that back to cooking specifically is really hard.

Will - So is it more of a case of whoever found it, cooked it?

Emma - Yes, quite possibly. Or that people cooked it as a group with various people chipping in. If it's something larger, more substantial, that's going to be shared.

Will - Thank you very much Natalie for your question, and thank you to Emma Pomeroy for the answer. Next week, we're answering this question from listener Kathryn, who after her cataract surgery had this to inquire about her new set of eyes.

Kathryn - Why is it with replacement lenses, which are fantastic? Does facial recognition still work? But biometrics do not seem to.

Will - And if you do have a question of your own or you think you know the answer to this one, the email address is chris@nakedscientists.com or join us on the forums nakedscientists.com/forum.