Die Frau im Anthropogeneseprozeß und in der frühesten Urgesellschaft

The position of the woman in the evolution of man is an important element in the anthropogenesis underlying the dialectic of contradiction between continuity and discontinuity. Archaeological remains, ethnographical observations and ethological results may contribute basis informations to this subject. The following theses can be advanced :

1. The transition from plant food to a meat-plant diet created the prerequisites for the sexual division of labour in the economic sphere.

2. The division of labour led to different mentalities.

3. The prolonged nursing and dependence of the human child, as opposed to non-human primates, are burdening to the mother, but form also a more intensive mother-child bond.

4. The permanent female mating creates certain prerequisites for monogamy. The “sexual reward” promotes this process. Promiscuity should not have existed.

5. Sexual and economic aspects have determined the cohabition of man and woman. Both have equal rights and complement each other economically. The woman, the fire-place and the dwelling have been central to cohabition.

6. As a rule, man has been the leading member of the community. Archaeological findings and ethnographical observations also point to a pre-eminence of the woman in some cases.

7. Man and woman have possessed personal properties.

8. The emergence of aesthetic consciousness has promoted the coherence of man and woman (adornments for the body, tattooing, dance).

9. The woman's role in cults has been an actively and passively privileged one.

10. The social development to clans and exogamy very often was realsized matrilineally. This does not necessarily lead to postulate a matriarchy.