Baresark said:
While all of that is true, if you read the rest of my previous statement, anthropological studies point towards the "nuclear family" unit in primitive societies.
The question is, how many of those contemporary primitive societies can be considered representative of humans as a whole, at least in case of this topic and associated choices. It could be my false impression, but isn't a significant percentage of currently existing ones bound to a specific climate and conditions? Not sure if there's a decent number of societies in more harsh areas (like eg. far-north?) that are also comparable in terms of development with their eg. "deep jungle counterparts". That does not mean I consider extreme an average environment for our ancestors, but it could mean we are missing a huge part of the picture. Note that I am not claiming anything at this point, more like being curious and doubtful at the same time.
Baresark said:
We can sit here and talk about what we think all day long, the only issue is there hasn't been any findings of larger family units in primitive remains, so far as I have read about.
Again - not claiming anything, but it's difficult to categorize findings if we have only limited clues about the society itself - if there was any model that could fit a geographically and climatically (if there's such a word
) diversified and ridiculously long phase of development.
Baresark said:
You are also suggesting that the world was a death ridden place, but any society works towards the relative safety of it's people. That means education about the world around them such as avoiding larger animals that can kill them, avoiding poisonous or dangerous food, and primitive morning and burial rituals worked against disease development.
True, but the efficiency of those methods hasn't been overly impressive in the past. Obviously, tens of thousands of years can easily mean that it simply resulted in the extinction of those groups that failed *too much* while the system worked at some level. But...
Baresark said:
But to assume that the only possible way is the "shotgun approach" isn't realistic.
I prefer to assume "shotgun approach" as the only *effective* way that could realistically work over time. What else was there - proto-contraception? Not really encouraging if preventing pregnancy is the main goal. Abstinence? We still have to figure out that one
Lucky guesses about future mortality rate and failure of unlucky groups? Selective breeding? Hm, this one could have some merit, but... quite a lot of talking necessary (and a knowledge I don't have). This is my main issue - reducing number of pregnancies would require a certain amount of know-how and resources and/or quite a bit of social development. Reducing number of children was less complex as it could happen either by simple action, inaction or regardless of any - and we can observe certain aspects that seem already pretty well developed in ancient societies, along with myths and rituals.
As for findings itself - I honestly don't know how they are interpreted in the first place. The amount of certain skeletons among random groups? Burial sites, with the assumption that eg. discarded children even got there? Not to mention a nomadic lifestyle that could also exclude probability of reconstructing a picture to a significant extent.
Still, that's all I can do at this point - accept your answers about the data, express doubt about their interpretation.