Old Brows Furrowed

Christopher Ryan, PhD, argues that early proto-humans lived far beyond 30 years:

But it's bullshit! Nobody was considered "old" at 30 in prehistory, just as 30 year-olds aren't considered "old" among modern day hunter-gatherers, or in the Old Testament, where humans were allotted 70 years (three score and ten). People who lived beyond childhood often–even typically–lived into their 60s and 70s in prehistory. The evidence for this is overwhelming, and well known to specialists in anthropology, primatology, and archaeology.

I've argued this before, to a certain end. Many biologists contend that most species on this planet who are trained in foraging and hunting are trained by their direct parents (see tigers) or are born with the instinctual knowledge (see sharks). A smaller number are trained by the pack/herd/flock (see lions). Of these, humans are one of the only species that has large quantities of grandparents, and long exposure to them. Imagine a 40 year old human, successful at hunting and still near the peak of their life, able to spend the next 20 years of their life passing down hunting knowledge? Imagine the gains, as a species, that could be generated from that amount of exposure to the older generation? It would allow the grandparents to teach not only their children, but their children's children, virtually everything they knew, day by day, year by year. The elders could gradually and carefully pass along hunting techniques, good areas for finding food, how to read the weather, inter-tribal politics, wisdom, fiction, and perhaps most importantly of all: love.
It is no secret that the tight-knit bonds of humans in their tribes was a key ingredient to the rise of our species as the dominant one on this planet. Having grandparents around for a good part of a human's childhood certainly helped that. And it has implications for today's society, where all too often the elders of a family are punted to Florida where they can "retire" (read: die) in peace, and leave the young alone to repeat all their mistakes...


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