Washington : Mothers in the past had one dependent offspring at a time and received no help from others while moms today often have multiple kids who help rear other children, scientists say, according to PTI.
New research by a University of Utah anthropologist explained how and why mothers in ancient societies formed cooperative groups to help raise their children. “We simulated an economic problem that would have arisen over the course of human evolution – as mothers became more successful at producing children, they also had more dependents than they could care for on their own,” said Karen Kramer, an associate professor of anthropology.
“We found that early in that transition, it was a mother’s older children who helped to raise her younger children and only with more modern life histories did mothers also need the cooperation of other adults.
“This suggests that early human families may have formed around cooperating groups of mothers and children,” said Kramer. Her findings are departure from earlier hypotheses by other anthropologists. Most hypotheses about who helped mothers in ancient societies point to other adults. Kramer’s study, however, found that it is a mother’s own children who were the most reliable as helpers.
“Human motherhood has undergone a remarkable transition from a past when mothers likely nursed children until the age of 5 to 6, did not nutritionally support children after weaning, and received no help raising the children,” researchers said.
“Going back in time, it might be possible to find groups of mothers and cooperating siblings who helped to raise other children. As time progressed, mothers have relied on other adult relatives and fathers to help out,” they said.
