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0 pointsIIsi50MHz2y ago0 comments

> > Hunter gatherers are/were constrained by wild food source densities but also tended to have smaller families

> This conflicts with the idea that they had lower infant mortality.

Not necessarily. Smaller family size can be a result of other factors outside of infant mortality.

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thaumasiotes2y ago

Today, yes. In a premodern context, not likely.

cmrdporcupine2y ago

I gave you the reason right there above, but you cared not to read it: longer breastfeeding period.

Plus the fact that in a hunter-gatherer society people choose not too have too many children for the same reason people make that choice in advanced capitalist economies. Children become a resource burden.

In an agrarian economy, your children are extra hands for farm work. In a hunter gatherer society they are mouths to feed in an environment with intrinsically limited resources.

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