Did humans evolve to 'protect' women?:

William Buckner (h/t @reiver / Charles)

"Rather than starting from the premise that humans evolved to be more protective of and sensitive to harm towards women, the evidence suggests there is massive variation in this regard, and we have to look towards the particular cultural and ecological contexts that can help explain this diversity.

Ultimately nearly all of my disagreements with evolutionary psychology stem from this concern about theories that are often built off of patterns found in contemporary industrial societies and aren’t sufficiently checked against the ethnohistorical record. I think the ‘harm hypothesis’ and ‘greater protectiveness of women theory’ are examples of this. I’d really love to see it become a norm for evolutionary psychologists to bring more of the ethnographic evidence to bear when proposing or endorsing particular models."

https://traditionsofconflict.substack.com/p/did-humans-evolve-to-protect-women