Comments
PopeRah! LOVE IT!!!
Zena
2017-08-25 06:01:23 +0000 UTCThe numbers may be a bit off. It's been more than ten years since I studied this in preventive medicine classes. But the general idea is there.
Carlos Marchi
2017-08-17 16:34:18 +0000 UTCIt's the second time in a row that the "a thirteen/fourteen years old person would be considered old during the Middle Ages" myth graced us in this podcast. I'm disappointed of you... A person in this age range might be considered an adult. Eligible for marriage. And expected to be a productive member of society. They were considered inexperienced and young though. So... where this notion come from than? A misunderstanding of science and statistics, of course. 1.) Average life expectancy ranged around the thirties; 2.) This average, as the name implies, takes into consideration the age people died. And establishes the middle ground; 3.) The lower classes had to deal with malnutrition, and sickness. Needless to say, many children died very, very young; 4.) The first threshold was birth, obviously. Around 20% of pregnancies have the child reach the ninth month in a position that isn't appropriate for delivery. Of these 20%, half would be too hard to deliver, resulting in death (of the mother, the child, or both). 5.) The second threshold was the first two years. Malnutrition and sickness taking its toll. 6.) The final threshold was the young adult (13 to 25), when you could be draft into an army and die in the name of country and God. If people managed to survive these, their life expectancy was as good as any low end third world country nowadays (I can call it third world, I live in Brazil. Check your developed world privilege). Therefore, when you average a small percentage of older people, with massive number of deaths in infancy, we get the 20 to 30 life expectancy. And from this average, people extrapolated that 13-14 was "old".
Carlos Marchi
2017-08-17 16:26:59 +0000 UTC
