![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Nana's R Powah!
Oct. 27th, 2007 10:18 amIn some cultures all women over a certain age are, indeed, called grandmother and they are accorded a certain respect within the society due to their accumulated knowledge. They are the mothers - the ones from whom we have all come - the ones that (in a tribal society) helped to raise us all... Regardless of actual blood ties. Fairy tales are VERY adamant about the way we are to treat old women, and the consequences of actions that deviate from this way. I happen to LOVE the way Mercedes Lackey has worked this into her Fairy Godmother series of stories.
The following two, connected stories are from the New York Times. a link to Kristen Hawkes' web-page at the University of Utah is provided. Her web-page links to various articles & studies she has written for peer-reviewed journals that are relevant to this story. Below that is a follow-up article to the first article, based on a lively comment/discussion about the impact of grandmothers on the lives of various individuals... As well as some bitch-slapping and whining concerning the role of grandpas. I'm sure the original set of comments had some flame-wars occurring.
Evolution’s Secret Weapon: Grandma
Juana Luis, 78, guards a rice field in the Philippines against birds. One theory suggests the work of older women may have provided humans with a survival advantage. (Jay Directo/AFP/Getty Images)
Are grandmothers an evolutionary necessity? The contributions of older women to society have long been debated by anthropologists. In the animal world, females often don’t live much past their reproductive years. But in our world, women live into their 80s and beyond — a fact that may be explained, in part, by evolutionary forces.
“It’s the norm in human population that women are vigorous and productive long past their fertility,’’ noted Kristen Hawkes, an anthropologist at the University of Utah. She spoke yesterday at the North American Menopause Society meeting in Dallas.
Today many women feel marginalized once they reach menopause. But research suggests that far from being a burden to societies, grandmothers have played an important role in the evolution of human longevity. Studies of modern hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, Venezuela and Eastern Paraguay — societies that offer insights into how humans evolved — consistently show that Grandma is doing much of the work.
( Read more... )
The following two, connected stories are from the New York Times. a link to Kristen Hawkes' web-page at the University of Utah is provided. Her web-page links to various articles & studies she has written for peer-reviewed journals that are relevant to this story. Below that is a follow-up article to the first article, based on a lively comment/discussion about the impact of grandmothers on the lives of various individuals... As well as some bitch-slapping and whining concerning the role of grandpas. I'm sure the original set of comments had some flame-wars occurring.
Evolution’s Secret Weapon: Grandma
Juana Luis, 78, guards a rice field in the Philippines against birds. One theory suggests the work of older women may have provided humans with a survival advantage. (Jay Directo/AFP/Getty Images)
Are grandmothers an evolutionary necessity? The contributions of older women to society have long been debated by anthropologists. In the animal world, females often don’t live much past their reproductive years. But in our world, women live into their 80s and beyond — a fact that may be explained, in part, by evolutionary forces.
“It’s the norm in human population that women are vigorous and productive long past their fertility,’’ noted Kristen Hawkes, an anthropologist at the University of Utah. She spoke yesterday at the North American Menopause Society meeting in Dallas.
Today many women feel marginalized once they reach menopause. But research suggests that far from being a burden to societies, grandmothers have played an important role in the evolution of human longevity. Studies of modern hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, Venezuela and Eastern Paraguay — societies that offer insights into how humans evolved — consistently show that Grandma is doing much of the work.
( Read more... )
