Odorous differentiation and variability in the sexual division of labor among hunter/gatherers

This paper explains variability in female social status for hunter/gatherers and focuses on the following: (1) under conditions of resource stress, when hunting becomes critical for survival, reproductive odors of women had negative effects on hunting success; (2) biological factors involved with reproductively-linked female odors are present almost continually in the adult female due to menstruation, pregnancy and lactation; (3) these odors would operate in hunter/gatherer society when hunting was a major activity, to alert animal species to the presence of the hunting group; (4) such odorous differentiation either signalled the flight or fight of animal species being hunted, and (5) contributed to the lack of hunting success of women, either individually or communally.