this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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No they didn't. Infants and children were dying left and right but if you survived to adulthood you'd most likely die in your 50's-60's.
High infant mortality rate is why the average human life expectancy was around 30.
Honestly this is why I hate averages because they can be easily misleading without the original source information to put it into perspective.
I've already made a couple of comments but I thought I'd throw this one in too, ancient societies held coming of age as a big deal because it meant that you'd reached a point where you were worth investing in, prior to that you were cannon fodder.
It makes the stories about the Spartans throwing babies off a cliff make much more sense.
Even as a fully healthy baby your odds were low so if there were any anomalies might as well just remove it from the equation
It's occasionally a survival strategy, rodents will eat their young if they are exposed to high levels of stress immediately after giving birth. Some sharks do it in vitro with their siblings. Edit, higher mammels tend to offer up the ability to sustain the young as a valuable survival trait, except male lions, if a male lion takes over a pride the first thing it does is kill all the cubs so the females go into heat sooner. Nature is harsh.