this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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and they lives till their mid 30s.
No they didn't. Infants and children were dying left and right but if you survived to adulthood you'd most likely die in your 50's-60's.
High infant mortality rate is why the average human life expectancy was around 30.
Honestly this is why I hate averages because they can be easily misleading without the original source information to put it into perspective.
I've already made a couple of comments but I thought I'd throw this one in too, ancient societies held coming of age as a big deal because it meant that you'd reached a point where you were worth investing in, prior to that you were cannon fodder.
It makes the stories about the Spartans throwing babies off a cliff make much more sense.
Even as a fully healthy baby your odds were low so if there were any anomalies might as well just remove it from the equation
It's occasionally a survival strategy, rodents will eat their young if they are exposed to high levels of stress immediately after giving birth. Some sharks do it in vitro with their siblings. Edit, higher mammels tend to offer up the ability to sustain the young as a valuable survival trait, except male lions, if a male lion takes over a pride the first thing it does is kill all the cubs so the females go into heat sooner. Nature is harsh.
You didn't have to make it to adulthood, if you made it to five you would likely see fifty on average. Edit, apologies that it still leaves an average. Second edit, it's also theorised that children don't like the taste of vegetables until they reach puberty, children are predisposed not to eat plant matter as they are incapable of knowing whether or not it will kill them.
I think half of child mortality rates are simply from babies being fucking suicidal.