On 31 May 2008, at 20:47, Ron Hoggan wrote:

>> High birth rates are left over from paleo times when having
>> as many children as possible was a primary means of passing
>> on genes since so many children died young.  A paleo society
>> could expect to have the traditional short and brutish and
>> red in tooth and claw lifespans with a very high childhood
>> mortality.
>
>
> I think that these are features of the pre-birth control Neolithic.

S Boyd Eaton in the book Stone Age Health Programme describes the care  
women go to avoid having children too close together, and also the  
consequences of doing so.  The idea that more children born means more  
children surviving only works when you can create enough excess food  
to cope in the short term, and then put those children to work  
creating food in the long term.

It's actually just dawned on me that the fundamental difference is  
that our neolithic food supply has *increased* with increasing  
population, but for paleolithic people, and every other animal on the  
planet, increasing population means *decreased* food supply.

That's really backwards, and I can't believe I didn't notice it  
before...

Ashley