Barefoot and pregnant

How fire led to gender roles

By Culinate staff

July 2, 2009

Richard Wrangham’s new book, Catching Fire, has gotten press lately for its argument that our ability to cook is what, largely, makes us human. But also noteworthy is Wrangham’s assessment of how cooking may have divided us along gender lines; as the New York Times review of his book quoted, “Cooking created and perpetuated a novel system of male cultural superiority. It is not a pretty picture.”