Strayer Chapter One-Paleolithic Era Part One

Probably the most fascinating part of this first bit of Strayer's first chapter is the dynamic of the Paleolithic human society.  Apart from spreading their kin so far over the globe--starting in Africa and moving to the farthest reaches of the Arctic, the Pacific Islands, Australia--the early groups of Paleolithic humans possessed a kind of tolerance that is hard to find today.  The female population whose focus was gathering (as opposed to the male population, which focused on hunting) brought to each "tribe," if we can call it such a biased term, the majority of the food source, so the women of the household, indeed, were "bringing home the bacon."
To be quite honest, most of this blog post will cover my appreciation for Strayer's attention toward the early female population.  Aside from the greater food roles that women played in the Paleolithic Era, polygamy was an acceptable concept in the societies, but gradually fell away because women chose not to "share" their husbands with other wives.  Things like rape, domestic violence, virginity were unheard of, which made the world a safer place for women than now, although our perception of such a far past is typically barbaric and violent.  We see the stereotypical "cavemen" as sex-hungry beasts who want only food and coitus from their claimed wives, but the wives had so much more freedom than we would expect.
The inclusion of the Venus of Willendorf indicates the importance of femininity in a spiritual sense.  We know from that statuette as well as other artistic expressions and indications that fertility and the cycles women go through (birth, menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, death) were viewed in greater terms than they are now--that is, they are important and women are to be praised for going through them.  The expectations for women then were not subject to the kind of bias that we are now.
I look forward to reading more about the early human history Strayer has to impart, and the terms under which he defines them, I am glad to be observing.