Thank you so much for summarizing all this for us. While I daydream about being born 15,000 years ago, I am least grateful that today we have some understanding and knowledge of how we used to be (thanks to these anthropologists). It helps me feel less crazy and depressed. Living in the early 1950s and having no concept of WHY things felt so weird and inequitable - I feel for those mothers.
Really interesting read! Especially that the Aka men suckle their babies for comfort. Your Substack and Instagram have been so informative and helpful in me understanding but couldn’t articulate why I sometimes feel so fucked off with everything motherhood—because we’re not mean to do it like this!
I’m in Australia, which seems to be lot better than America but we’ve still got a long way to go too.
One small point for thought—the word “aborigine” is considered outdated and offensive with colonial connotations by many Indigenous Australians and Australians. More accepted wording is to use their specific clan name if you know it, Indigenous Australians, First Nations people/s (plural as there were originally 200+ different tribes of people), Aboriginal Australians or Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people if you’re including Torres Straight Islands as well.
Thank you so much for summarizing all this for us. While I daydream about being born 15,000 years ago, I am least grateful that today we have some understanding and knowledge of how we used to be (thanks to these anthropologists). It helps me feel less crazy and depressed. Living in the early 1950s and having no concept of WHY things felt so weird and inequitable - I feel for those mothers.
Really interesting read! Especially that the Aka men suckle their babies for comfort. Your Substack and Instagram have been so informative and helpful in me understanding but couldn’t articulate why I sometimes feel so fucked off with everything motherhood—because we’re not mean to do it like this!
I’m in Australia, which seems to be lot better than America but we’ve still got a long way to go too.
One small point for thought—the word “aborigine” is considered outdated and offensive with colonial connotations by many Indigenous Australians and Australians. More accepted wording is to use their specific clan name if you know it, Indigenous Australians, First Nations people/s (plural as there were originally 200+ different tribes of people), Aboriginal Australians or Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people if you’re including Torres Straight Islands as well.
Thanks for reading! Glad you like the content. And thanks for the correction. A lot of the research I read is from the 1980s and terms change fast.
kind of sad but interesting in light of today's society