As the sallow light rises over the land in the iconic opening scene of the 20th century classic film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick captures the attention of audiences. The shot focuses on a group of furry man-apes gathered around a watering hole, devoid of women or children. A young male then emerges, grasping a large bone from a skeleton. In a moment of contemplation, he begins to beat the ground with the bone, slowly at first, but then with increasing fury. He soon runs off, using the bone to bludgeon another hominin to death. This scene symbolizes the invention of the first weapon by prehistoric man, leading to the concept I refer to as “tool triumphalism”. We have long upheld the belief that our species’ ingenuity and cleverness lie in the creation of weapons, establishing dominion over both our peers and the animal kingdom. However, the truth may not be so straightforward. The most prolific tool creators among our ancient ancestors were likely not male. In fact, I suggest that the most significant early invention made by our species was not a weapon, fire, agriculture, the wheel, or even penicillin. Rather, it was gynecology – humanity’s greatest innovation.
Experts in the fields of paleoanthropology, primatology, comparative ethology, cognitive science, and even historians specializing in apes all agree that our early predecessors were skilled tool users and adept problem solvers. This is not unique to humans, as various animals such as octopuses and crows also exhibit tool usage. In laboratory settings, primates are frequently observed using tools, although it is uncertain how many would do so in the wild. Nonetheless, the archaeological record provides evidence that capuchin monkeys have been modifying stone tools for thousands of years. Therefore, tool use is not exclusive to humans, and even our early hominin ancestors were utilizing various objects to ensure their survival.
Understanding the evolution of practices encompassed by gynecology, as well as any form of tool use, proves challenging due to the lack of fossilized brain tissue and uteruses. What we are studying are not physical organs or bones, but rather a set of behaviors that our ancestors employed using their cognitive and physical abilities. While brain tissue and uteruses do not fossilize, artifacts of tool use, particularly those made of rock, are preserved and allow evolutionary biologists to trace changes in the habits and capabilities of evolving species over vast periods of time. By analyzing these artifacts alongside fossilized bones, paleoanthropologists can infer the relationship between an object, its user, and the environmental context.
In general, innovation is often driven by individuals who face relative disadvantage and seek to overcome it. From a scientific standpoint, female primates have more to gain – and lose – as they are typically smaller and more vulnerable compared to males. Additionally, due to their role in reproduction, females have more immediate needs for food and safety. Thus, if our female ancestors were adept problem solvers, similar to other higher primates, it would make sense for them to invent solutions that accommodated their physical limitations. However, this is not the narrative commonly associated with early hominins. Nevertheless, chimpanzees, one of our closest living relatives, exhibit well-documented instances of female invention. In Senegal, more female chimps than males use wooden spears they have crafted to hunt prey, and younger chimps learn these skills from their mothers.
In terms of evolutionary challenges, our species faces one of the most difficult problems: human reproduction. Even with modern medical advancements, pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum recovery remain more arduous and prone to complications compared to other primates. Human women have a narrow pelvic opening, which evolved due to our upright walking posture, while human babies have comparatively large heads. Paleoanthropologists studying the australopithecines, who predated the brainy tool-using habilis, believe they dealt with similar challenges. The emergence of habilis and their peers only compounded this issue. Therefore, if successful childbirth and postpartum survival are crucial for a lineage’s continuation, our ancestors would have needed to develop solutions to ensure the viable population for their innovations. This likely included assisting in childbirth, manipulating fertility patterns, and implementing various strategies to maximize the survival of mothers and babies.
Gynecology, in all its forms, aims to make reproduction safer by addressing excessive bleeding and bacterial infections, guiding labor efforts, and managing female childbearing. While the contemporary version of gynecology, involving speculums and paper gowns, originated in the mid-19th century through unethical experimentation on enslaved women, variations of these practices exist in every human culture today. Historical cultures also had their own approaches to gynecology, influenced by their respective belief systems. The importance of gynecology for our species’ evolutionary fitness cannot be overstated, especially when considering the reproductive system in its ancient state. As populations faced numerous challenges, our ancestors needed to ensure the survival and growth of viable populations. This required balancing birth rates and implementing strategies to increase the survival of both mothers and babies.
The existence of ancient stone tools associated with early hominins provides valuable insights into their potential for gynecological knowledge. While these tools may not have been directly used for gynecological purposes, they indicate complex social knowledge sharing among early hominins. Flint knapping, as demonstrated by habilis and erectus, was a skill that required extensive learning. These tool caches, their distribution, consistency, and their association with fossils offer clues about the collaborative nature of our ancestors’ groups and their shared knowledge. In a world filled with formidable predators, survival depended on outlearning and outrunning, necessitating collective problem-solving.
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