Yes, deer. but fed only from the regular feed, or the cow blood- or urine-contaminated feed, depending on the herd and the day. A few authors did test the deer avoidance hypothesis, however. (Prof. Gottlieb is in my department, and this is a simply lovely book.). What do you post after you have achieved the trifecta? That’s right ladies, it’s time to set up your red tents and enjoy the great outdoors. Current Anthropology 38(1):123-129. Since, to their minds, menstrual, pregnant and lactating odors are all rather noxious, that means developing taboos against menstruating women touching men, their weapons, or even casting a shadow over a man as he prepares to bring home the bacon (or antelope). American Anthropologist 87(1):128-130. In a cross-populational comparison, Waguespack (2005) found that many women are actually helping with the hunting, by making weaponry, participating in driving game to hunters, and helping with the transportation issues like making and moving houses so important to game-driven populations. But what conditions drive variation in labor divisions? Note that in token of this, urine/menstrual blood magic is … March (1980) contaminated the feed of deer on a game reserve with menstrual blood and human urine (which was a mix of “nonmenstruous” female – thank you, March, for introducing me to a new word – and male urine). But what about male odor? Reminder: Period Blood Does Not Attract Sharks. Deer, Bears, and Blood: A Note on Nonhuman Animal Response to Menstrual Odor. 1985. The idea for this post came from a question I received when a guest on Skeptically Speaking: is menstrual blood an attractant to bears? You only need a valid email address and only I see it, so pseuds are fine. Others make a special ceremony of burying it. “It is unreasonable to think pre-hunt application of these sprays can eliminate 100 percent of human odor, given the various sources and volume of VOC molecules given off by the human body,” claims Dr. Strickland. The offspring will remain with their mothers for almost a year, leaving about the time that the next season's offspring are produced. But they also help to show us that biology is not immutable, that it does not define us from the moment of our birth. 1997. Noss AJ, Hewlett BS. Odorous differentiation and variability in the sexual division of labor among hunter/gatherers. Balzer also contends that the concept of female pollution is prevalent in populations where male dominance is “significant but not secure (given contrasting values of female worth, cooperation, and autonomy)” (1985:128). Longtime bowhunter John Eberhart, co-author of "Bowhunting the Eberhart Way," believes that it depends on the type of deer you’re after. Most people understand humans to divide our labor in a gendered way: men hunt and women gather, men provision and women care for the kiddos, men look to the outside world and women to the domestic one. Context and variation together help us understand humans (and any other species) as complicated. Para permitir a Verizon Media y a nuestros socios procesar tus datos personales, selecciona 'Acepto' o selecciona 'Gestionar ajustes' para obtener más información y para gestionar tus opciones, entre ellas, oponerte a que los socios procesen tus datos personales para sus propios intereses legítimos. However, the author describes significant archaeological remains for hunting and almost none for gathering, which has led past researchers to assume men were hunters (ethnographic evidence in modern American Indians corroborates this instance) and women largely absent or invisible from any important work in that culture. ), and so it’s likely a large portion of their diet came from meat. Biesele M, Barclay S. 2001. The organization of male and female labor in foraging societies: Implications for early Paleoindian archaeology. Menstruation is far too infrequent – 50 to 100 times across the reproductive life span of a forager woman, compared to the 400 of industrialized women (Strassmann, 1997) – for it to make sense as a pheromonal signal to predators or prey of humans in the first place. For most women, menstruation begins between ages 12 and 13.You may bleed in what’s commonly called a “period” every 21 to 35 days or so.. Heck, I don’t mind menstruating but I certainly wouldn’t eat it. Nunley MC. Of the menstruating variety? Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at, Happy Blogiversary! Native Americans hunted deer long before Europeans arrived. Kelly R. 1986. Contrary to what you might think, fresh human urine is clean and bacteria-free. Waguespack (2005) also makes another important point: the activities of women in populations that rely most heavily on meat are often unknown. Waguespack (2005) uses the early Paleoindian archaeological record to test this question and understand where our assumptions about Man the Hunter came from. It’s easy to forget what women do if we have little record of their work, and easy to create strong gender divisions when information is this incomplete. © 2021 Scientific American, a Division of Nature America, Inc. Support our award-winning coverage of advances in science & technology. But it's hormonal, not "magic." The bears also ignored non-menstrual human blood. Waguespack NM. Think about it. Nunley (1981) repeats the experiment with a bit of a twist: the feed is contaminated with men’s venous blood, versus nonmenstruous/male urine, versus cow blood. Histamine compounds. Why period blood varies in color. I knew a woman farrier who did not stop working on her client's horses during menstruation and she never noticed any difference in the behaviors of the stallions she worked on. Bears could attack you in the forest! Of course, if the taboo is primarily towards menstruating women, but all of these odors can turn away game, it is hard to see how they are related. Menstrual contamination after the animal is dead probably has little influence over the hunter’s previous success at killing it. Men certainly hunt more than women among hunter-gatherers, but the simplest and most common biological explanation – that women, being the childbearers, are more likely to be busy with pregnancy, breastfeeding, and the raising of small children – is the best one. A few traces of alcohol is thought to drive them away. Yahoo forma parte de Verizon Media. What are women doing with all that time that, in other groups, they would fill with gathering? Latest. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American. Blood Group. They sort of replicated this by trying to hand-feed the deer apples with menstrual blood or urine on them, to the same effect. I think my husband’s workout clothes contribute (almost) equally to our laundry hamper’s stink! We often have more control over our biology than we may think. Health. If more hands are needed, women step up. 1980. Maybe they didn’t eat it, but being aversive to eating menstrual blood isn’t the same as being aversive to it being in one’s presence. Not many hunters lure deer with feed, that I know of. 1985. It also makes a good cover scent. So if you think ticks do not hide inside […] There are nearly 100 different compounds in doe-in-estrus urine. Spray it on your boots before you walk in. None of this was actually tested, of course. Comparative studies in society and history 38:687-729. The CDC declares Super Bowl parties a … The gestation period is the same for all subspecies. Oh, hey, you're still here, that's awesome! The sample was on a game reserve with partially domesticated deer who are presumably used to the scent of humans. No male scent was used as a control (Kelly 1986 also notes this). Honestly, I think that your chances of bagging a … Usually people believe that mosquitoes like O blood group because it is sweet but this is a complete myth. And don’t expect to enjoy nature (or eat it), because the deer will run from your very scent. So the basis of their product does come from a deer, but not necessarily from a doe in heat. Strassmann BI. A lot of hunter/gatherer societies might have rules and stipulations related to women on their periods, but it's more about control over women and superstition than hunting impact Studies on captive deer populations' reactions to menstrual blood shows they approach feed mix with menstrual blood, but their reaction is the same as spreading human male or female urine on feed.