1 -
Three Stages in Human Evolution
2 - Stone Age Humans
3 - Greece & Rome
4 - The 17th and 18th Centuries
5 - The Social Reforms of the 19th and 20 Centuries
6 - 1950 to 2000 - The Coming Gerontocracy
7 - The Problem
8 -The
Solution |
"The Aphrodite of Willendorf"
{http://users.hol.gr/~dilos/prehis.htm} |
Our Stone Age ancestors had relatively short
life-spans. Infant and maternal mortality were high - by age 5 close to
40% had died and 50% before adolescence. Few survived to reproductive age;
and from excavations of communal burial mounds, we know that none survived
beyond age 40. Mortality was from predators, tribal warfare, famine, infection,
and environmental forces.
Thus, in Nature, ageing was not a factor; and we can
say that in Nature, there is no such thing as growing old. Most people think
of ageings as being "natural"; but it is not. It is an artifact
of our progress. |