evolutionary mismatch-a theory that examines how contemporary lifestyles diverge from those our ancestors evolved to thrive in. (Page 4)
evolutionary mismatch
Just last year a fascinating paper came out on children’s physical activity levels in hunter-gatherer societies, compared with ours. Unsurprisingly, they get loads of exercise, way more than our kids—and this has all kinds of interesting implications. (Page 9)
indagar y publicar.
from the beginning, some of the things I have consistently found to be most interesting are the long interbirth intervals in hunter-gatherer societies, the amount of alloparental help and support that mothers had, and the compatibility of foraging work with breastfeeding and babywearing. Those are themes that come up again and again in my writing and that have consistently struck a chord with audiences. (Page 9)
At the risk of sounding a bit corny or new-agey, I feel like studying hunter-gatherer societies has been a kind of awakening for me. It has totally changed my paradigm, not just the way I think about motherhood, but about the way I think about all of Western society, and about what I value. We are very individualistic in our culture, and I don’t think it’s healthy. We pathologize any kind of interdependence, but humans are a social and interdependent species. Hunter-gatherer societies are incredibly care-oriented relative to Western society, where we tend to view care as a burden. Studying these societies has helped me lean into motherhood more, lean into my relationships more, and let go (at least a little bit) of the achievement/ productivity focus that drove most of my young adult life. I’ve also changed my mind on a lot of policy issues! (Page 10)
It’s not easy parsing dense scientific literature (I spend a lot of time reading primary research papers) and making that come to life for an audience that does not necessarily have a science background, but that’s the whole fun of it! The hardest part is staying true to the research, and including all of the necessary nuance, without being overly boring or pedantic. Sometimes I oversimplify things, out of necessity, but I try really hard to be as accurate as possible. (Page 11)
difusión científica.
95% of mammalian mothers forage for themselves and their offspring with virtually no help from anyone, and although humans are an exception to this in that we have always relied on help from the community, the father-provider/ mother-dependent framework is basically nonexistent in hunter-gatherer societies. Truly, mothers have always been breadwinners, the difference is just that it used to be fully compatible with breastfeeding and childcare. (Page 12)
mito que el lugar de las madfres es el hogar.
Children–even very small infants–receive care from a huge variety of allo-parents in hunter-gatherer societies. Aka mothers provide as little as 25% of childcare in the first year of a baby’s life, and this may well have been the case for much of humanity’s evolutionary history. (Page 13)
Mothers provide as little as 25% of childcare in the first year of a baby’s life, and this may well have been the case for much of humanity’s evolutionary history. (Page 13)
once the constraint of breastfeeding is dropped (usually around age 3), mothers prefer to leave their three-year-olds behind in multi-age playgroups (kind of like Paleolithic preschool), (Page 15)
edad típica para el destete en terminos evolutivos.
In general, living in single-family homes is a very recent invention, but the absurdity of it really shows up in motherhood because so many mothers feel tied to the home when their kids are small, and this can be extremely isolating. Many Western mothers, myself included, feel simultaneously overstimulated, overworked, AND bored, which is really the result of the way we have set up motherhood in the modern context. For most of evolutionary history, having a baby did not mean you were suddenly isolated and segregated from society. Your work did not change, your social life did not change, your community did not change, your activities did not change–you just continued doing all of these things with a baby on your back. If you needed help with an older child while you breastfed your baby, there were 20 other adults in camp who could lend a hand. That’s a pretty stark difference from the modern maternal experience in America or Europe. (Page 15)
As long as it’s not crippling, postpartum anxiety is actually adaptive, because it motivates mothers to be extra vigilant and attuned to the needs of their babies. But postpartum depression doesn’t seem to have any real adaptive value. I struggle to imagine how it would have been adaptive in the hunter-gatherer context, and it certainly isn’t now. There’s a great research paper by Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook of UC Merced on this suggesting that PPD is the result of a combination of mothers being undersupported in the postpartum period, combined with breastfeeding mismatches, dietary mismatches, sunlight exposure and exercise mismatches. I think it’s credible! (Page 17)
Diferencis entre PPD y ansiedad post parto. PPD también puede tener que ver con el aislamientl simbólico.
lack of training (girls in hunter-gatherer societies get lots of practice with babies before becoming mothers, which increases self-efficacy). (Page 17)
I don’t know a single Western parent that would be totally chill letting their four-year-old climb up a swinging vine into the forest canopy, or play with a machete, but if you watch Caterpillar Moon, for instance, a documentary on Aka forest life, you’ll see that parents in that culture are totally okay with this stuff. They believe children need to take risks to learn. On the other hand, putting a baby in a crib by itself to sleep would make hunter-gatherer mothers extremely anxious, and yet we do this routinely in the West. What is paradoxical about Western parenting is that we spend less time in physical proximity with our children, and less time in intimate physical contact (especially with babies and young children), but we also center children much more when we are with them. I don’t think this is good for parents or children, and we should maybe take a leaf out of the hunter-gatherer playbook. (Page 20)
sobre lo exagerados que somols los padres occidentales con el riesgo.
children do not require exclusive maternal care to grow up healthy and happy, even in the first years. (Page 21)
We think parenting is instinctual (it’s not!) or that it’s a private concern, but if we started treating parenting as an essential learned skill that benefits all of society, then maybe we would be more serious about giving tweens and teens opportunities to practice (both boys and girls). This would have the added benefit of helping reduce the caregiving burden for mothers or childcare workers. I could imagine, for instance, a middle school being paired with a preschool or a nursery, and letting the older kids help care for and play with the younger kids. Parents would probably oppose this, because we don’t trust anyone anymore, but I think it would be a net positive intervention, if designed well. (Page 22)
sobre la posibilidad de plantearlo como proyecto en Grupo Educativo.
Getting men more involved in caregiving has all kinds of knock-on benefits for society as a whole. Men who spend more time in intimate contact with young children are not only better caregivers (even years later) but they have higher levels of oxytocin and lower levels of testosterone, and societies in which fathers are more involved in childcare tend to be healthier and less violent. This is another topic I write about a lot in my newsletter and book. (Page 25)
sobre la necesidad de desarrollar nuevos modelos de parentalidad.
I hope mothers will feel seen. I hope they will have the same kind of “aha” reaction that I had when I first read Konner’s book. I hope they will be able to let go of some internalized guilt or sense of failure when they realize how out of sync the modern motherhood experience is with our evolved physiology and psychology, and that this is something we have very little control over. (Page 27)
Importante en el contexto de la terapia.