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