Scientists have been interested in the question of why women live for decades past menopause (and typically far outlive men) when their use in terms of furthering their genetic legacy is putatively over.
Now some scientists have zeroed in on the question and can only theorize that grandmothers providing for their grandchildren in ancient societies conferred a huge advantage for their survival.
Here's a post about it:
http://anthropology.net/2009/10/29/...proceedings-of-the-royal-society-b/#more-2597
It certainly makes intuitive sense, and it appears obvious on its face, but I think this work may be a key development in understanding more about the composition of ancient cultures. It suggests that children were raised primarily by their own family units (as opposed to the whole tribe) for instance.
Plus, it also suggests an even larger role for women in the tribal structures. Grandmothers who could take a portion of the child rearing role would free time for the mothers to do other things in the tribes.
As I noted in my post about the sub-arctic survival thread, it has been long understood that groups of women have an inherent advantage in hunter gatherer societies vs. groups of men.
I think, as we dig deeper, we'll discover that women were the backbone and leaders of nearly all successful hunter gatherer cultures.
The Iroquois nation in North America had the longest running representative democracy in the world by the time of contact with Europeans (at least 300 years, some say 500 years.) No one had succeeded like the Iroquois. Interestingly, the women owned all the property in Iroquois culture, they could veto decisions to go to war and women typically elected tribal chiefs (who were men).
Anyhow, give the grandmother piece a read, it's quite interesting.
Now some scientists have zeroed in on the question and can only theorize that grandmothers providing for their grandchildren in ancient societies conferred a huge advantage for their survival.
Here's a post about it:
http://anthropology.net/2009/10/29/...proceedings-of-the-royal-society-b/#more-2597
It certainly makes intuitive sense, and it appears obvious on its face, but I think this work may be a key development in understanding more about the composition of ancient cultures. It suggests that children were raised primarily by their own family units (as opposed to the whole tribe) for instance.
Plus, it also suggests an even larger role for women in the tribal structures. Grandmothers who could take a portion of the child rearing role would free time for the mothers to do other things in the tribes.
As I noted in my post about the sub-arctic survival thread, it has been long understood that groups of women have an inherent advantage in hunter gatherer societies vs. groups of men.
I think, as we dig deeper, we'll discover that women were the backbone and leaders of nearly all successful hunter gatherer cultures.
The Iroquois nation in North America had the longest running representative democracy in the world by the time of contact with Europeans (at least 300 years, some say 500 years.) No one had succeeded like the Iroquois. Interestingly, the women owned all the property in Iroquois culture, they could veto decisions to go to war and women typically elected tribal chiefs (who were men).
Anyhow, give the grandmother piece a read, it's quite interesting.
