Lady Sapiens by Cirotteau Thomas;Kerner Jennifer;Pincas Eric;Hurd Philippa;

Author:Cirotteau, Thomas;Kerner, Jennifer;Pincas, Eric;Hurd, Philippa;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hero

Despite all the birth control strategies available to her, did Lady Sapiens decide to have a large family? Nineteenth-century academic painting or l’art pompier, notably through works such as Léon Maxime Faivre’s Two Mothers, created an indelible image of a prehistoric woman surrounded by lots of children clinging to her breasts. But is this a distorted view? Were large families desirable – and above all manageable – for Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers?

Our ancestors’ way of life was not conducive to having lots of offspring, as they had to face numerous physical constraints. First of all, daily work involved short to medium-length journeys. But above all, a significant degree of mobility was necessary during the seasonal migrations between different encampments. Michèle Coquet also reminds us that, among today’s hunter-gatherers, ‘pregnancies happen every four to five years. Their demanding lifestyle requires births to be regulated.’

Equally Jean-Jacques Hublin finds it ‘unrealistic to imagine large families. Women’s fertility is generally lower in the Paleolithic than in the Neolithic period.’

Having a child is not just a question of biology and environment. It’s a decision that results from both personal and cultural choices. So how many children did Lady Sapiens choose to have in her family? Even just a few years ago, it would have been very ambitious to hope for an answer. But advances in science and the development of new fields of investigation now make it possible to overcome this silence. This is in particular thanks to research carried out by Vincent Balter, a CNRS research director affiliated to Lyon’s École Normale Supérieure.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.