I think looking at the ruling classes skews things. Bret Devereaux has been blogging about how peasants lived. (This is not about hunter-gatherers, though. It's about farmers.) We know rather...
I think looking at the ruling classes skews things. Bret Devereaux has been blogging about how peasants lived. (This is not about hunter-gatherers, though. It's about farmers.) We know rather little from historical writing, but there are things that can be deduced from demographics, and it's pretty sobering:
For all societies, everywhere at every time before about 1750 (and in most places for a long time after that) it was simply a fact of life that half, HALF of all children died.
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Generally about half of the population at any given time under this mortality regime is going to be age 15 and below.
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pre-modern cultures do not have a ‘childhood’ as we understand it, as an extended vacation from work and adult life. Children were instead working in whatever capacity they were physically able as soon as they were physically able because these societies simply lacked the resources to support half of the population on a non-working basis
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If the average woman has roughly six live births over her lifetime in order for a population to replace itself, that means – as you can see above – that a woman surviving to menopause needs a bit more than seven (to make up for early mortality in other mothers), which, accounting for miscarriages might mean something like 9 or 10 pregnancies over a lifetime.
Adding on that we don't have to go back far for terrible mortality statistics- about 1 out of 5 of my childhood friends in SE Asia didn't make it to adulthood, and that was as recent as the late...
Adding on that we don't have to go back far for terrible mortality statistics- about 1 out of 5 of my childhood friends in SE Asia didn't make it to adulthood, and that was as recent as the late 70's. Hell, I would have been one of those had we not been able to fly out to Bangkok for medical treatment. Getting in to the effects this sort of life/death struggle had on the society is too much to cover in a simple comment, but I will say that (unsurprisingly) gender dynamics were a lot more complex and nuanced than any simple explanation could cover. Men and women alike were both empowered and ensnared by societal expectations, and while there was plenty of disfunction to be seen, there were a lot of genuinely happy families, too. It is a tough subject to wrap one's head around.
I'm skeptical that child mortality for hunter-gatherers was any better. They wouldn't have had any better healthcare. Yes, the link at the end is just another article I read recently that sorta vibes.
I'm skeptical that child mortality for hunter-gatherers was any better. They wouldn't have had any better healthcare.
Yes, the link at the end is just another article I read recently that sorta vibes.
Evolution of big-brained babies hasn't been particularly kind to humans, either. Antonia Fraser's history of women's lives in 17th Century England, The Weaker Vessel, also makes the case that...
Evolution of big-brained babies hasn't been particularly kind to humans, either. Antonia Fraser's history of women's lives in 17th Century England, The Weaker Vessel, also makes the case that maternal mortality and morbidity cut women's life expectancies to 35 years on average, often spent severely debilitated through anemia, infections, and the physical injury of childbearing without modern obstetrical care. As many as one in three women predeceased their partners. Even so, the history of the English Civil War years and the prior reign of Queen Elizabeth I illustrate that some women still participated in economic life, took up arms, and exercised decision-making power.
The statistics are clear that it's only in the very recent past that child mortality dropped from 50% before age 15.
Thanks for the article. I read Frans de Waals book about gender in primates and I found it fascinating. It's cool that the author gave recommendations for books to read to learn more.
Thanks for the article. I read Frans de Waals book about gender in primates and I found it fascinating.
It's cool that the author gave recommendations for books to read to learn more.
I think looking at the ruling classes skews things. Bret Devereaux has been blogging about how peasants lived. (This is not about hunter-gatherers, though. It's about farmers.) We know rather little from historical writing, but there are things that can be deduced from demographics, and it's pretty sobering:
...
....
...
History is mostly terrible. This is the historical background for the argument that feminism fundamentally depends on technological progress.
Adding on that we don't have to go back far for terrible mortality statistics- about 1 out of 5 of my childhood friends in SE Asia didn't make it to adulthood, and that was as recent as the late 70's. Hell, I would have been one of those had we not been able to fly out to Bangkok for medical treatment. Getting in to the effects this sort of life/death struggle had on the society is too much to cover in a simple comment, but I will say that (unsurprisingly) gender dynamics were a lot more complex and nuanced than any simple explanation could cover. Men and women alike were both empowered and ensnared by societal expectations, and while there was plenty of disfunction to be seen, there were a lot of genuinely happy families, too. It is a tough subject to wrap one's head around.
I'm skeptical that child mortality for hunter-gatherers was any better. They wouldn't have had any better healthcare.
Yes, the link at the end is just another article I read recently that sorta vibes.
Evolution of big-brained babies hasn't been particularly kind to humans, either. Antonia Fraser's history of women's lives in 17th Century England, The Weaker Vessel, also makes the case that maternal mortality and morbidity cut women's life expectancies to 35 years on average, often spent severely debilitated through anemia, infections, and the physical injury of childbearing without modern obstetrical care. As many as one in three women predeceased their partners. Even so, the history of the English Civil War years and the prior reign of Queen Elizabeth I illustrate that some women still participated in economic life, took up arms, and exercised decision-making power.
The statistics are clear that it's only in the very recent past that child mortality dropped from 50% before age 15.
Thanks for the article. I read Frans de Waals book about gender in primates and I found it fascinating.
It's cool that the author gave recommendations for books to read to learn more.