Are we domesticating human beings? | Hacker News Reader

Are we domesticating human beings?

gmgauthi.livejournal.com

5 pointsdavid6 comments

Though the average life expectancy in medieval Europe (which is what he seems to mean by "in history") was about 40, people didn't only expect to live to be 40. Everyone considered the natural human lifespan to be the canonical 3 score years and 10. I.e. 70. They knew there was a good chance some accident or disease would nab them before that, but they didn't feel as if they were in a rush because they only had half as much time.

It's also an urban legend that "centuries ago" women matured earlier and had children in their teens. In the Amazon rainforest perhaps. In Europe the average age of marriage for women has been in the mid twenties for many, many centuries. Possibly back to pre-Roman times. The worse things were economically, the later the age tended to be.

That pretty much makes sense. Know any good sources on either of these topics?

http://sciencethatmatters.com/archives/30

Laslett's The World We Have Lost

Thanks.

"... The worse times got economically, the later the age tended to be. ..."

I'm not sure how true this statement is. How for instance does it explain the late marrying trend today where many indexes of wealth are very high. [0] In Australia at least scores of women (and men) are delaying marriage so the age over the last 20 or so years has been on a steady incline. [1]

Australia is by any standards an increasingly wealthy country as evidenced by the close to parity AUS dollar to the greenback and the resources boom triggered by the growth of China and India.

A simpler answer might be the array of choice women have, more schooling, travel, careers. Though I can't help but think factors such as high cost of education, very high cost of housing and wealth re-distribution might have some effect as you suggest. [2]

[0] ABS, Measures of Australian progress, 2006, http://144.53.252.30/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/39433889d406eeb9ca257...

[1] ABS, Marriages, Australia, 2006, Age at marriage, Median Age at Marriage, http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mf/3306.0.55.001/

[2] ABC, Research finds skewed distribution of wealth in Australia, http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2004/s1093582.htm

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