On Sun, 12 Apr 1998 Dean Esmay <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Commentary on the apparent lack of cancer (and heart disease) among
> hunter-gatherers (and primitive horticulturalists, as Staffan's work has
> shown) in this forum has been interesting, but a few people have sent me
> messages asking about the average lifespan of such peoples.  What data is
> available on this question?

The average lifespan will not be particularly informative.  What is needed
is information on the age structure of the populations.  To take an
exaggerated, (and hypothetical) example: a population with average
lifespan 30 years could have: (a) 50% dying age 1 and 50% dying age 59, or
(b) 50% dying age 29, 50% dying age 31.  The former population will have a
higher incidence of age-related diseases like cancer, heart disease, and
arthritis.  Diseases of extreme old age (e.g. Paget's disease which is
unknown under 50 years of age, and reaches prevalences of 10-15% in
Caucasians over 90 [1]) are seen in archaeological populations with
average age of death of 30 years or so, because there were many
individuals who died young, but also some who reached old age.

The average age of the living, rather than the dead, might be more
informative, but still not as good as the age structure of the living
population.

[1] Roberts, C & Manchester, K (1995) The archaeology of disease.  2nd ed.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press pp.184-185

Andrew

 =========================================================================
 Dr. Andrew Millard                              [log in to unmask]
 Department of Archaeology, University of Durham,   Tel: +44 191 374 4757
 South Road, Durham. DH1 3LE. United Kingdom.       Fax: +44 191 374 3619
                      http://www.dur.ac.uk/~drk0arm/
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