Paper short abstract:

Why should the biological and behavioural facts of, and the cultural ideals surrounding, menstruation be a critical interface for interpretation of early modern human cultural artefacts?

Paper long abstract:

Darwinian sexual selection theory in general, and specific theory on primate sex signals, such as the 'graded signal' hypothesis (Nunn 1999), lead us to expect that menstruation matters in human mating systems. Social anthropologists and ethnographers have collected a mountain of material relating menstruation to cosmological cycles and phenomena on every continent (e.g. Turner, Warner, Hugh-Jones, Gow, Lévi-Strauss, Knight). In African hunter-gatherer cosmologies, such as those of the /Xam, Mbendjele and Hadza, menstrual and reproductive bleeding have significant social, economic and ritual effects. To date, only one cosmology has been explored systematically both at the level of behavioural ecology and that of ritual and myth: the Dogon (Strassmann 1996, Calame-Griaule 1986). In this case, a selfish-gene Darwinian has ventured on interpretation of menstrual and religious practices (Strassmann 1992). Behavioural ecology offers predictive models which address variability of outcome in differing socioeconomic contexts. Such models can have a bearing on archaeologists' interpretation of Palaeolithic rock art, mobiliary art and ritual sites.

Calame-Griaule, G. 1986. Words and the Dogon World. trans. D. LaPin, Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues.

Nunn, C. L. 1999. The evolution of exaggerated sexual swellings in primates and the graded-signal hypothesis. Animal Behaviour, 58, 229-246.

Strassmann, B. I. 1992. The function of menstrual taboos among the Dogon. Defence against cuckoldry. Human Nature 3: 89-131.

Strassmann, B. I. 1996. Menstrual hut visits by Dogon women: A hormonal test distinguishes deceit from honest signaling. Behavioral Ecology 7: 304-15.