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A new study from The Australian National University has found that the death rate of babies in ancient societies is not a reflection of poor healthcare, disease and other factors, but an indication of the number of babies born in that era.
The findings show that infant mortality rates were not always high in ancient populations.
It is possible that mothers from early human societies were more capable of caring for their children than was previously thought.
"It has been assumed that infant mortality must have been high if there were a lot of dead babies in the sample," Dr. McFadden said.
Infant mortality has been assumed to be high in the past in the absence of modern healthcare.
The number of babies that were born and the number of babies that were dying is what the burial samples tell us, which is contrary to what we've been led to believe.
The researchers looked at the UN data from the past decade for 97 countries that looked at infant mortality, fertility and the number of deaths that occurred during infancy. The analysis showed that fertility had a bigger influence on the proportion of dead infants than the infant mortality rate.
The UN data helped the researchers make interpretations about humans from the past 10,000 years because there is very little known about early human societies.
Archaeology looks at the proportion of dead infants to learn about infant mortality. It was assumed that 40% of babies born in prehistoric populations died within the first year of their lives.
Dr. McFadden found no evidence to support the assumption.
She said that there was no proof that a lot of babies were dying, but that a lot of babies were being born.
It seems reasonable to suggest that mothers who had a lot of babies were capable of caring for their young children.
The ANU findings could help researchers understand how mothers cared for and interacted with their children in ancient societies.
As we piece together more clues about the history of humans, it's important that we bring some humanity back to our ancestors.
"We forget our ancestors' emotional experience and responses such as the desire to provide care and feelings of grief, which have been around for tens of thousands of years, so adding this emotional and empathizing aspect to the human narrative is really important."
The researchers would like to see more emphasis placed on the stories of women in the past, which they say have been neglected in favor of male stories.
It's important to tell the stories of women in the past and the roles they played in the past, because they tend to have a focus on men.
We hope that further research, applied with the lens of our findings, will add to our understanding of infant care and motherhood in the past.
The American Journal of Biological Anthropology published the research.
The American Journal of Biological Anthropology has more information on Determinants of infant mortality and representation in bioarchaeological samples. There is a citation for "10.1002/ajpa. 24406."
Prehistoric moms cared for kids better than we thought.
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