Sexual differences in the consumption of food by <em>Homo sapiens</em>: some speculations in archeogastronomy and the evolution of eating patterns

Abstract

En las sociedades tradicionales, los hombres son más propensos a
consumir grandes cantidades de alimentos en unas pocas comidas
diarias, mientras que las mujeres tienden a consumir pequeñas
cantidades de comida, pero con más frecuencia durante el día. Aquí
propongo la hipótesis de que este comportamiento tiene una base
biológica, porque en las sociedades de cazadores-recolectores, los
hombres hacían la caza en grandes áreas y comían abundantemente
al obtener una presa, mientras que las mujeres se movían en una
zona más restringida, recolectaban y con frecuencia comían de los
pequeños alimentos hallados. Sugiero que en el sentido gastronómico,
la orientación del hombre es extra-territorial y la orientación de la mujer
es predominantemente intra-territorial.

ABSTRACT

In traditional societies, men are more likely to consume substantial
amounts of food in a few daily meals, whereas women tend to consume
smaller quantities of food but to do it more frequently during the day.
Here I propose the hypothesis that this behavior has a biological basis
because in hunting-gathering societies, it was the men who did the
hunting over large areas and had to wait until a kill was made to eat
(often a large amount of food in a single sitting), while women moved
in a more restricted area, did the gathering and frequently ate some of
the small pieces of food that they found. I suggest that in gastronomic
and spatial terms, the orientation of the male is extra-territorial and the
orientation of the female is predominantly intra-territorial.