Others commented about misogyny etc. in India miss the fact that India is (a) not a monolith & (b) flights are too expensive for 80% of India’s population (yes, wealth disparity in India is that bad). So the men on flights are less likely to grope women than let’s say a man on a train.
I asked my Indian colleagues about this, and they said they’d use this preference for space (not purely safety). One of them also said men smell worse than women so she’d prefer a woman next to her.
I feel articles like this give off “alien must have built the pyramids” energy. We’ve always been smart, but what modern civilizations have is systematic recording, organization & dispersal of gained knowledge with an amazing efficiency. I think a great example of great ingenuity lost is roman concrete, recipe for which was only recreated recently.
Can anyone tell me the academic benefit of studying/publishing ancient building techniques that confirm modern day methods? Should we not look for unknown/unfamiliar techniques that might have been lost to time?