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People in the past were not all dead by 30. Ancient documents confirm this. In the 24th century BCE, the Egyptian Vizier Ptahhotep wrote verses about the disintegrations of old age. The ancient Greeks classed old age among the divine curses, and their tombstones attest to survival well past 80 years. Ancient artworks and figurines also depict elderly people: stooped, flabby, wrinkled.
This is not the only type of evidence, however. Studies on extant traditional people who live far away from modern medicines and markets, such as Tanzania's Hadza or Brazil's Xilixana Yanomami, have demonstrated that the most likely age at death is far higher than most people assume: it's about 70 years old. One study found that although there are differences in rates of death in various populations and periods, especially with regards to violence, there is a remarkable similarity between the mortality profiles of various traditional peoples.
High infant mortality and inaccuracy at the other end of the age range skew the numbers.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Wednesday July 18 2018, @01:50AM (3 children)
The two went together, as well. You might well get by on 4 hours a day - in good times - but that's 4 hours of real work, not loafing around, not sitting in a chair.
And the food you could gather in those 4 hours of work wouldn't contain a lot more calories than you burned in those 4 hours to get it. There wasn't any cola, or any gummy bears. Just raw foods that you have to work hard to get.
Voilá! No one is overweight! Well, yeah, no one has the opportunity to be.
Many of the big causes of death today are neatly avoided in that scenario, and there are certainly advantages, but you're really falling all the way into the other fallacy - the noble savage rot. No work? Maybe no one to tell you to do this work instead of that, or when to do it, or whatever... depending on the social traditions you might have a lot of autonomy - but you worked. You worked damn hard, or you starved.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday July 18 2018, @02:27AM
In the Middle ages, "a day's work" was sunrise to lunch or lunch to sunset. Part of why we eat poorly is that we are busy working when we should be cooking. You get home, nuke some less than healthy something and due to mental tiredness, vegetate on the couch, then go to bed.
(Score: 2) by dry on Thursday July 19 2018, @03:10AM (1 child)
Depends on where you lived. The natives around here spent about 2 weeks a year harvesting and curing a years worth of salmon, lots of calories for a couple of weeks of work.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday July 19 2018, @04:17AM
They didn't cure up a bunch of fish then loaf the rest of the year. The cured fish gave them a reserve for winter - and not enough by itself.
Also they didn't actually cure most of the fish. Back in the day the yield from those runs was way more than they could cure. They probably fed most of it to the dogs. The dogs, also, were part of the food reserve for winter. And fresh dog was preferred to preserved fish.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?