They are not saying that hunter gatherers reached this age on average; they are saying that in a “state of nature”, as judged by looking at hunter gatherer societies, it is reasonable to assume, based on their evidence, that the human body and mind was adapted to work until 68-78 years of age. When they use the term ‘modal age’ (as they do in their conclusion, and their introduction), they mean ‘modal’ in the sense of modal possibility—‘could be’ or ‘would be’.
Edit: Sorry, that was unclear. To quote from the article, “the modal age at death may be the age at which most people experience sufficient physical decline such that if they do not die from one cause, they soon die from another.” That is, it is the age that the body starts to wear out, and one might be considered enfeebled.
They are not saying that hunter gatherers reached this age on average; they are saying that in a “state of nature”, as judged by looking at hunter gatherer societies, it is reasonable to assume, based on their evidence, that the human body and mind was adapted to work until 68-78 years of age. When they use the term ‘modal age’ (as they do in their conclusion, and their introduction), they mean ‘modal’ in the sense of modal possibility—‘could be’ or ‘would be’.
Edit: Sorry, that was unclear. To quote from the article, “the modal age at death may be the age at which most people experience sufficient physical decline such that if they do not die from one cause, they soon die from another.” That is, it is the age that the body starts to wear out, and one might be considered enfeebled.
That seems to indicate that summarizing what they’ve said as the average age of death being 72 years is not accurate.
Yes. That summary is totally inaccurate.