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They absolutely did but how frequently? The first villages in China are attested 7500 BCE, that's 10 kyr later, if the dating is correct.

Tainnor 5y ago
As far as I am aware, large meetings of different tribes did occur during the paleolithic at regular intervals, although not very frequently. In any case, such meetings don't have to be frequent for such a virus to spread once they do occur. The virus could have originated in a single tribe, killing some of the people and immunising others and then remained endemic in that tribe for years before they came into contact with others.
tablespoon 5y ago
> They absolutely did but how frequently? The first villages in China are attested 7500 BCE, that's 10 kyr later, if the dating is correct. There were obviously viruses before urbanization (especially given there are viruses that spread in wild animal populations), they probably just spread more slowly. At the minimum, there was probably regular deliberate contact/mixing between adjacent groups to avoid too much inbreeding, and that would imply other social contacts (e.g. an adult who married into another group returning home to catch up with his/her parents and old friends). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fission%E2%80%93fusion_society#Structure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fission%E2%80%93fusion_society...
- cyberlurker 5y ago
  Nitpicking here, but there probably wasn’t anything we would define as “marriage”. That Wikipedia article says “copulate” instead. Now I want to go down the wiki rabbit hole about the history of human marriage. Also, I’d imagine there were at least far fewer viruses before urbanization. My understanding is early civilization was really good for diseases.
  - refurb 5y ago
    Early civilization would have been brutal in terms of diseases compared to today. There are plenty of diseases where humans are a part of the reproduction cycle - malaria is a good example. You don’t need groups of humans together. Then add in human-animal transmission and you have endemic malaria, tuberculosis, parasites, disease causing bacteria. If you look at remote, isolated tribes today they have a very heavy burden of non-fatal (but quality of life decreasing) diseases.
  - tablespoon 5y ago
    > Nitpicking here, but there probably wasn’t anything we would define as “marriage”. That Wikipedia article says “copulate” instead. That specific passage was talking about chimpanzees.
gumby 5y ago
There are certainly older settlements (not just remains) in the americas, australiasia, India and of course Africa. Undoubtably older ones in China too, just no traces yet found. Genetic and linguistic studies demonstrate significant mixing of communities.

Tainnor 5y ago

As far as I am aware, large meetings of different tribes did occur during the paleolithic at regular intervals, although not very frequently. In any case, such meetings don't have to be frequent for such a virus to spread once they do occur. The virus could have originated in a single tribe, killing some of the people and immunising others and then remained endemic in that tribe for years before they came into contact with others.

tablespoon 5y ago

> They absolutely did but how frequently? The first villages in China are attested 7500 BCE, that's 10 kyr later, if the dating is correct. There were obviously viruses before urbanization (especially given there are viruses that spread in wild animal populations), they probably just spread more slowly. At the minimum, there was probably regular deliberate contact/mixing between adjacent groups to avoid too much inbreeding, and that would imply other social contacts (e.g. an adult who married into another group returning home to catch up with his/her parents and old friends). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fission%E2%80%93fusion_society#Structure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fission%E2%80%93fusion_society...

cyberlurker 5y ago
Nitpicking here, but there probably wasn’t anything we would define as “marriage”. That Wikipedia article says “copulate” instead. Now I want to go down the wiki rabbit hole about the history of human marriage. Also, I’d imagine there were at least far fewer viruses before urbanization. My understanding is early civilization was really good for diseases.
- refurb 5y ago
  Early civilization would have been brutal in terms of diseases compared to today. There are plenty of diseases where humans are a part of the reproduction cycle - malaria is a good example. You don’t need groups of humans together. Then add in human-animal transmission and you have endemic malaria, tuberculosis, parasites, disease causing bacteria. If you look at remote, isolated tribes today they have a very heavy burden of non-fatal (but quality of life decreasing) diseases.
- tablespoon 5y ago
  > Nitpicking here, but there probably wasn’t anything we would define as “marriage”. That Wikipedia article says “copulate” instead. That specific passage was talking about chimpanzees.

gumby 5y ago

There are certainly older settlements (not just remains) in the americas, australiasia, India and of course Africa. Undoubtably older ones in China too, just no traces yet found. Genetic and linguistic studies demonstrate significant mixing of communities.