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posted by martyb on Tuesday December 04 2018, @01:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the seek-and-ye-shall-find dept.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-09/mpif-mww090117.php

At the end of the Stone Age and in the early Bronze Age, families were established in a surprising manner in the Lechtal, south of Augsburg, Germany. The majority of women came from outside the area, probably from Bohemia or Central Germany, while men usually remained in the region of their birth. This so-called patrilocal pattern combined with individual female mobility was not a temporary phenomenon, but persisted over a period of 800 years during the transition from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age.

The findings, published today in PNAS, result from a research collaboration headed by Philipp Stockhammer of the Institute of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology and Archaeology of the Roman Provinces of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. In addition to archaeological examinations, the team conducted stable isotope and ancient DNA analyses. Corina Knipper of the Curt-Engelhorn-Centre for Archaeometry, as well as Alissa Mittnik and Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena and the University of Tuebingen jointly directed these scientific investigations. "Individual mobility was a major feature characterizing the lives of people in Central Europe even in the 3rd and early 2nd millennium," states Philipp Stockhammer. The researchers suspect that it played a significant role in the exchange of cultural objects and ideas, which increased considerably in the Bronze Age, in turn promoting the development of new technologies.

For this study, the researchers examined the remains of 84 individuals using genetic and isotope analyses in conjunction with archeological evaluations. The individuals were buried between 2500 and 1650 BC in cemeteries that belonged to individual homesteads, and that contained between one and several dozen burials made over a period of several generations. "The settlements were located along a fertile loess ridge in the middle of the Lech valley. Larger villages did not exist in the Lechtal at this time," states Stockhammer.

Female exogamy and gene pool diversification at the transition from the Final Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in central Europe (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1706355114) (DX)

[Update: Yes, this story is from 2017 and, no, I have no idea how it appeared in the story submission queue. As for why I didn't notice its antiquity, I plead exhaustion and being unwilling to let the story queue run dry though it was well past midnight when I pushed the story out. Hope you can have some fun with it, anyway! --martyb]


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Blymie on Tuesday December 04 2018, @02:30PM (5 children)

    by Blymie (4020) on Tuesday December 04 2018, @02:30PM (#769554)

    I came here to say this exactly. Even today, women are stolen from families.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bride_kidnapping [wikipedia.org]

    And if you raid a village in the bronze age? Guess what's part of the plunder.

    And war?! Well, that's another whole ball game. Even "good" outcomes to war can mean the women move.

    For example? Look at how many American men took French women home, those women even choosing to do so? Well, the man just rescued her, and on top of that?

    There are fewer French men. :(

    Meanwhile, in the bronze age? The man who hunts for food, knows all the local predators, knows all the sinkholes, knows how to hunt his terrain.

    This study makes sense.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by inertnet on Tuesday December 04 2018, @03:57PM (3 children)

    by inertnet (4071) on Tuesday December 04 2018, @03:57PM (#769615) Journal

    Wanted to say this too.

    I thought, those scientists can't be that naive, when I read "individual female mobility" in TFS. Those women never had a say in those journeys.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 04 2018, @09:52PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 04 2018, @09:52PM (#769778)

      I can't wait until 3 or 4 graduating classes later when this this has turned into "See this was a vast womyn empire where the men stayed home looking at porn and the women were out having adventures, defeating invaders, trading, and handling political disputes."

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @02:08AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @02:08AM (#769908)

      Women at least had the option to move. For men, it would mean near-certain death.

      If you're a dude, and you wander over to a different tribe, WTF do you think is going to happen? You think you will be welcomed with open arms? You think they will share their hot babes with you? No. You're getting fucked with a spear.

      If you're a hot babe, and you wander over to a different tribe, you will be strongly encouraged to stay. You'll have issues with the other ladies at first, but you'll gain power as kinship grows. When you are a grandma, cooperation with your children may even give you significant power.

      • (Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday December 05 2018, @03:34AM

        by legont (4179) on Wednesday December 05 2018, @03:34AM (#769937)

        I totally agree, but want to add some.

        It probably means that overall society aggressiveness was lower those days. I mean there were not many men going to foreign lands in mass and raping everything in sight as became customary with more modern societies. Communities of stone and bronze age were likely safer. Note that we are usually told otherwise.

        --
        "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by cubancigar11 on Wednesday December 05 2018, @03:36AM

    by cubancigar11 (330) on Wednesday December 05 2018, @03:36AM (#769938) Homepage Journal

    For what it's worth, grooms are kidnapped too at the same rate but it doesn't make spicy news for you lot and it is still women who move. Something about it being about powerful families dominating powerless and agriculture and land being important and men being able to do more physical labor.