The only data I know
> of in which life tables have been established for living hunter
> gatherers is that of Neel's work with the South American Yanomama (JV
> Neel.  Health and disease in unacculturated Amerindian populations. Ciba
> Foundation Symposium #49; 1977, 155-177.).
>

As pointed out by Marvin Harris in "Cannibals and Kings:The Origins of Culture"(New York,Random
House 1977), the Yanomama raise crops and hunting sucess is tempered by the resulting population
denisity.  Still if Neolithic people can obtain results like these, can true Paleolithic people
do less.

A more interesting number might be arrived at by modeling the effects of the lack of auto-immune
disease noted by Tanchou and Stefansson (As documented in V.S.'s "Cancer Disease of Civilization,
New York, Hill and Wang, 1960) in true hunter-gatherers on American mortality rates.  As 95% of
all Americans currently die of auto-immune diseases, the resulting number may be a lot closer to
the ideal human life span (1 milliom hours) than is currently enjoyed in this country.

I'm no mathematician (Art Devanney, are you reading this?) so I don't know the practicality of
this, but such a number would interest the popular press and sell millons of books for several
authors on this list!  I have received many letters from readers claiming remissions from several
types of auto-immune disorders and have personal experence with remissions from diabetes and
rheumatoid arthritis (which is why I wrote my book).

Ray Audette
Author "NeanderThin: A Caveman's Guide to Nutrition"
http://www.sofdesign.com/neander