Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-15-2012

Abstract

Humans are the longest living and slowest growing of all primates. Although most primates are social, humans are highly cooperative and social in ways that likely co-evolved with the slow human life history. In this paper we highlight the role of resource transfers and non-material assistance within and across generations in shaping low human mortality rates. The use of complex cooperative strategies to minimize risk is a necessary precursor for selecting further reductions in mortality rate in late adulthood. In conjunction with changes in the age-profile of production, the impacts of resource transfers and other forms of cooperation on reducing mortality likely played an important role in selection on post-reproductive lifespan throughout human evolution. Using medical data and ethnographic interviews, we explore several types of common risks experienced by Tsimane forager-horticulturalists, and quantify the types and targets of aid. Our results illustrate the importance of transfers in several key domains and suggest that the absence of transfers would greatly increase human mortality rates throughout the life course.

Comments

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Experimental Gerontology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Experimental Gerontology, volume 47, issue 10, in 2012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2012.05.006

The Creative Commons license below applies only to this version of the article.

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Copyright

Elsevier

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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