Longevity Among Hunter‐ Gatherers: A Cross‐Cultural Examination

TLDR

Post‑reproductive longevity is a robust feature of human life and is not solely a recent phenomenon caused by improvements in sanitation, public health, and medical advances. The study argues for an adaptive lifespan of 68‑78 years for modern Homo sapiens based on mortality profiles from small‑scale hunter‑gatherer and horticultural populations, and seeks to reconcile these findings with paleodemographic studies and recent acculturation observations. The authors compare survivorship patterns, senescence rates, modal adult death ages, and causes of death, and integrate age‑specific dependency and resource production data to explain the adaptive utility of longevity from an evolutionary perspective.

Abstract

Post‐reproductive longevity is a robust feature of human life and not only a recent phenomenon caused by improvements in sanitation, public health, and medical advances. We argue for an adaptive life span of 68‐78 years for modern Homo sapiens based on our analysis of mortality profiles obtained from small‐scale hunter‐gatherer and horticultural populations from around the world. We compare patterns of survivorship across the life span, rates of senescence, modal ages at adult death, and causes of death. We attempt to reconcile our results with those derived from paleodemographic studies that characterize prehistoric human lives as “nasty, brutish, and short,” and with observations of recent acculturation among contemporary subsistence populations. We integrate information on age‐specific dependency and resource production to help explain the adaptive utility of longevity in humans from an evolutionary perspective.