Submitted by Erratic_Noman t3_10ejkgo in askscience
rootofallworlds t1_j4xs655 wrote
Reply to comment by sheismagic4e in Biologically speaking, what makes men typically stronger than women? by Erratic_Noman
> Evolutionary Design: Men are built to hunt and protect, while woman play the major role in reproduction and care taking of the next generation.
I don't think this stands up to scrutiny. Firstly the idea that hunting was a male activity in forager societies has been called into question by archeological evidence such as https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abd0310
Secondly, the same sexual dimorphism exists in the other Hominidae (great apes) to a varying extent, with no correlation to how much hunting the species does. In particular gorillas do virtually no hunting but have males much larger than females. An evolutionary explanation for sexual dimorphism that's applicable to all great apes is simpler than appealing to a different explanation for each species.
I agree with other answers that fighting is a more probable driver of sexual dimorphism in great apes than hunting. If, in human forager societies, more hunting was done by men this could be as much the result as the cause of the sexual dimorphism.
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