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> The idea that adults died at 30 is absurd, but persists everywhere anyway, mostly because it flatters us in the present. I always thought the idea persists j
by J-dawg 8y ago
> The idea that adults died at 30 is absurd, but persists everywhere anyway, mostly because it flatters us in the present.
I always thought the idea persists just because people don't instinctively understand averages. (I agree with the rest of your comment though).
- dalore 8y agoThere were more child deaths certainly which brought down the average considerably. But if you survived childhood the life expectancy wasn't that much different. And that's why using the average to compare is bad.
- aalleavitch 8y agoThe post above still shows this to be false, even accounting for child mortality. And what exactly do you imagine the quality of life was like for people in a society with massive child mortality? To say that the past was anything but a terrible place to live is to blind yourself to horrific realities about the way people have lived up until now. To imagine life was much like it is today is a massive anachronism, based often on one’s ignorance of the details of life in past societies that one pastes over with their own situation.
- dalore 8y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy Going back as far as we can the life expectancy in the Paleolithic era if you made it to 15 was 54 years. Not far off from today's standard.
- newen 8y agoWhat. U.S. life expectancy from birth is around 78.
- taeric 8y agoIsn't this really only true for men? Child birth was not necessarily fatal in all cases, but it was a major event that had many more risks than we acknowledge nowadays. Even something simple like a plugged duct leading to mastitis could have been a death sentence not all that long ago.