hunter-gatherers...have very low rates of...the so-called diseases of civilization.
How do you know the rates of cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, etc. of paleolithic humans?
James said HG, not paleolithic. We can look to modern HG and observe their causes of death. This does become a problem when he wants to make evolutionary arguments. Do they eat the same as in the paleolithic? Do we even know what people ate then? If we can’t compare modern HG to ancient, the causes of death of ancient ones are irrelevant, but we can still consider adopting the diet of modern HG (with less justification).
paleolithic humans...who did make to their adulthood rarely lived past their forties
Where do you get this figure? According to wikipedia, modern HG live about 40 years from age 15. Numbers I’ve seen from the paleolithic are similar, but much less precise. I think Caspari-Lee and Trinkhaus both expect the median paleolithic adult to reach 45.
Where do you get this figure? According to wikipedia, modern HG live about 40 years from age 15. Numbers I’ve seen from the paleolithic are similar, but much less precise. I think Caspari-Lee and Trinkhaus both expect the median paleolithic adult to reach 45.
I went by memory. But anyway, if the total life expectancy at 15 was about 55, it would still be the case that they would have been disproportionally less subject to old-age diseases than we are.
(and anyway, modern hunter-gatherers are generally at least neolithic, not paleolithic)
James said HG, not paleolithic. We can look to modern HG and observe their causes of death. This does become a problem when he wants to make evolutionary arguments. Do they eat the same as in the paleolithic? Do we even know what people ate then? If we can’t compare modern HG to ancient, the causes of death of ancient ones are irrelevant, but we can still consider adopting the diet of modern HG (with less justification).
Where do you get this figure? According to wikipedia, modern HG live about 40 years from age 15. Numbers I’ve seen from the paleolithic are similar, but much less precise. I think Caspari-Lee and Trinkhaus both expect the median paleolithic adult to reach 45.
I went by memory. But anyway, if the total life expectancy at 15 was about 55, it would still be the case that they would have been disproportionally less subject to old-age diseases than we are.
(and anyway, modern hunter-gatherers are generally at least neolithic, not paleolithic)
How would that happen in practice?
Even that would screen out most diseases relevant to modern humans.