> > Hey, why should we imagine paleo people were never fat?
> > Don't forget the venus figures....

>If I remember correctly, these figures were AFTER farming,
>therefore not paleo.  Most of what I have read about these
>representations says they were fertility associated:  a
>woman must have a certain body status to ovulate and the
>very thin such as marathoners do not (or so it is
>reported).  Therefore, wouldn't the makers of the figurines
>want fat females for their representations?

One of the major changes in human society after the Agricultural Revolution
was a baby boom of all but cosmic proportion.  Why?  I'm using ballpark
figures (as I've once again loaned out a book with this information), but
here's an interesting tidbit taken from research on current hunter-gatherer
tribes:

Average age of menses (first menstrual cycle) - mid to late teens
Average age of first childbirth - 18 or thereabouts
Average time between births - 3 to 4 years

All with no birth control, by the way.

Of course, as any statistician will tell you, girls today are starting their
cycles as young as 10 (bummer!) and we've all heard of girls as young as 13
or even 12 having a baby, a child having a child.  We'll probably never know
ALL the reasons why but dietary changes are no doubt in the picture.

One thing that absolutely fascinated me was something seen among tribal
teens.  Just like teens today, they were having some serious fun behind the
bushes, including The Act.  The main difference?  No out-of-wedlock births.
HA!  I LLLLOVE it!  This puts to bed (as it were) the sentiment that s-e-x
before marriage is due to the influence of Hollywood, rock-and-roll or the
general moral decline of the human beast in today's eee-vee-il, horrible
world.  True, tribal females get married almost immediately after menses
and, thus, no "illegitimate" births but they, and their male counterparts,
were still fooling around before the 'M' word.  The act of love is as old as
mankind and nothing to be ashamed of.  Imagine me telling my mom or my
conservative Mennonite aunties THAT one!  (Don't worry, I won't.)

Seriously, seeing this documented really helped me see the Bigger Picture.
Know what I mean?

Dori Zook
Denver, CO

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