However, in villages, infants no longer had to be carried and they could eventually be put to work. That changed attitudes to families, to children, and to gender roles. In villages, having lots of children provided plenty of labor for the household as well as protection and care for the old. That’s why, in most sedentary communities, women were expected to bear as many children as they could, partly because they knew that perhaps half would die before they reached adulthood. Such attitudes sharpened differences in gender roles and ensured that most women’s lives would be dominated by the
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