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I think it's almost unfathomable for us to imagine how far we are from a "traditional" homosapien life. I read a book called "Hunt, Gather, Parent" where they d
by SQueeeeeL 4y ago
I think it's almost unfathomable for us to imagine how far we are from a "traditional" homosapien life. I read a book called "Hunt, Gather, Parent" where they describe the life of multiple 'less developed' societies, and how they spent a large portion of their life interacting with babies, adolescents, older children, pregnant relations.
It's a miracle people are still able to reproduce at all given our isolation from reproduction and the processes of rearing children.
- readthenotes1 4y agoI have a relative who grew up as the oldest of four children in a very traditional home in a rural setting. She has had trouble breastfeeding each of her three babies.
- positr0n 4y agoI read a comment here years ago saying that in ancient times the average woman would have only a few dozen menstrual cycles in her life. Most the time between puberty and menopause you were either pregnant or breastfeeding. Does the book discuss that too?
- compiler-guy 4y agoOr undernourished.
- antognini 4y agoThat may have been true for agricultural societies, but it doesn't sound right for hunter gatherers (at least from my memory of an anthropology class I took). Many hunter gatherer societies have strong postpartum taboos and space children at least three years apart.
- generaltsos 4y agoReproduction isn't the hard part, from what I can tell! It's everything after the reproduction occurs that is tough.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- _whiteCaps_ 4y agoI'm not so sure about that. Sperm counts are dropping: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/human-sperm-counts-declining-worldwide-study-finds-180981138/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/human-sperm-counts...
- nsxwolf 4y agoMaybe we just got better at counting them in the last century and they haven't actually dropped.
- ldayley 4y agoI understand the cheekiness of this comment, but reproduction in many societies has indeed become more difficult for many of the same reasons (among several others). The sex hormones that orchestrate lactation and mother-child bonding are largely the same that regulate menstrual cycles, sexual desire, pregnancy, and childbirth. If disruptions to these hormone balances are found to be a major cause in an increase in breastfeeding issues, then this likely correlates strongly with issues effecting the entire reproduction “stack”, if you will.
- mitthrowaway2 4y agoIf you're in your mid-30s or later, reproduction certainly can be tough, even when you're trying.
- rebuilder 4y agoIt’s something I’ve been thinking about - between being a child and having kids of my own, there were practically no children in my life. I’m not unique by any means. I don’t know what, if any, effect that kind of culture has in breastfeeding, but it sure does seem pretty remarkable.
- falcolas 4y agoForget the isolation; western civilization all but requires two income earners to have a "median" life. There's remarkably little time or money to raise a child. Median individual income: $40,000, poverty level for "replacement" families (two adults, two children): $30,000.
- gjsman-1000 4y agoFunny enough, Elizabeth Warren wrote a book about it, The Two-Income Trap, in 2004.
- ye-olde-sysrq 4y agoworth noting that 2 children is below replacement rate, so someone needs to be having 3 kids too. which is becoming increasingly uncommon especially because of how many things change between 2 and 3 kids. (Notably: 2 carseats fit in ~any vehicle. 3 fit in very few vehicles unless you rush the oldest into a booster seat.)
- falcolas 4y agoFWIW, the poverty level for a 3 child household is $35k. ($44k in Alaska, $40k in Hawaii) Probably doesn't count the vehicle troubles, but more the added food, board, and transportation in general.
- jvm___ 4y agoEveryone on your street or apartment building cooks, cleans, washes and cares for, ONLY, their little cubicle of people. Even if you're 5 ft away physically our society doesn't allow for sharing of any of that repeated labor - unless money is involved. We spend so much time solo doing activities that would have been communal or at least shared, which puts more pressure on people as well.
- causi 4y agoThink about how many millions of years were spent evolving the human brain, human instincts, and human child to adult development process to maximize the survival of children and hence our species. Now think about how psychotic it is, in light of that, to make small children sleep in a separate room from their parents. No wonder they have night terrors. Our society is utterly riddled with anti-natural facets like that which cause no end of problems.
- sandermvanvliet 4y agoHaving a baby around I can tell you that as far as human evolution goes it’s good we don’t have natural enemies because we’d all be eaten by now. Baby is tired: I shall make lots of noise so the predators will go away… right. Eaten I tell you!
- egman_ekki 4y agoHaving a small kid also got me wondering how chimps cope with the same problems. I mean they’re 98% similar to us, so the babies must go through very similar stages…
- EForEndeavour 4y agoI can only assume since we're all here that the survival benefits of incredibly loud infant cries outweigh(ed) the risk of attracting predators. I'm no biologist, but I can imagine how the fact that babies cry promotes formation of close-knit social groups to help defend against predators in numbers.