Article

Horticultural activity predicts later localized limb status in a contemporary pre-industrial population

Jonathan Stieglitz, Benjamin C. Trumble, Hillard Kaplan et Michael Gurven

Résumé

Modern humans may have gracile skeletons due to low physical activity levels and mechanical loading. Tests using pre-historic skeletons are limited by the inability to assess behavior directly, while modern industrialized societies possess few socio-ecological features typical of human evolutionary history. Among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists, we test whether greater activity levels and, thus, increased loading earlier in life are associated with greater later-life bone status and diminished age-related bone loss.

Publié dans

American Journal of Physical Anthropology, vol. 163, n° 3, juillet 2017, p. 425–436