Re:Why Technology Favors Tyranny
by village-idiot on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @02:32PM
(#17911570)
The bit about teeth is actually based on work by Weston A Price. He managed to catch photos of many tribes right as they transitioned into the then modern diet in the early 20th century. He was also a dentist, which is why he focused on teeth. Focusing on teeth is important because
1. Cavities kill.
2. Teeth are a good proxy for general health.
The bit about morbidity is bog standard anthropological information from any university. Quick googling for “hunter gatherer mortality” brings up plenty of sources.
I personally focus on pre-history, since early “civilization” was awful. We’ve only recently climbed out of the low life expectancies that started with the advent of farming.
Malnutrition was very common until very recently even among hunter gatherers. Bad season? Sorry, half of your family starves and the other is sick.
That said, early settled people had it even worse.
They did get more exercise, but that is possible, easy in fact, to match, and results will likely be limited.