Subadult Mortality Among Hunter-Gatherers: Implications for the Reconstruction of Care During Prehistory

Abstract

Questions about the timing and modalities of the evolution of caregiving behaviors have a direct impact on our understanding of human cultural evolution and early social dynamics. Hypotheses on caregiving behaviors in prehistory are usually developed on skeletal evidence documenting survival of seriously debilitating conditions. However, a theoretical framework to test these hypotheses is still missing. Therefore, I propose a model for caregiving behaviors in prehistory based on data from modern hunter-gatherer societies. Due to their ecology and social organization, modern hunter-gatherers communities represent a good proxy of early humans’ social systems. Accordingly, I postulate that by isolating factors correlated to social support in those communities it is possible to build a theoretical reference for reconstructing similar behaviors in prehistory. To this end, I use ethnographic data on environmental (environmental productivity) and demographic (population density, group mobility, and subadult mortality) variables in order to explore possible correlations with caregiving behaviors. Results, though stressing the complex nature of caregiving behaviors, evidence a suite of factors relevant in predicting caregiving attitudes in the past. Altogether, this study demonstrates the usefulness of a model-based approach for testing biocultural hypotheses in prehistory.