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Childhood mortality at 50 % was a good thing because it purged suboptimal genes from the genepool.
That isn't how it worked. Often is was just the one that was malnourished or late in the birth order, or unlucky in what crazy disease they caught. It wasn't some kind of fight to the finish. The smartest people haven't been winning some darwinian struggle to improve the human race since....ever.
Yes it is.
Ah, then why aren't Congolese the smartest strongest healthiest people on the planet then? Maybe because natural selection doesn't always select for the traits we want, maybe it just selects people that will have the most people born to them. What a crazy stance to take, so "optimal" human life for you is just the ability to pump out 10 kids that can live in poverty?
...because tropical diseases and animals are infinitely less lethal than their fellow men ?
You really think you'd rather be exposed to Steppe Nomads than elephants ?
What? Africa is always at war, and has been since time immemorial.
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Still likely a correlation between being the feeblest and not surviving childhood, versus these days in which serious conditions are extended ad infinitum for no particular benefit to society.
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