[jly]

I think you need to move further back. Civilization accounted for a sharp decline in life expectancy due to disease and other factors like extreme agricultural labor. Humans have only gained back what was lost since the industrial and technological revolutions.

Extant hunter gatherers, living without access to modern medicine, have been studied to show life expectancy closer to 70.

[rockinghigh]

This is doubtful. All the research I've seen points to very different story. One example:

"the expected annual probability of death for a 65-y-old hunter-gatherer is about 5.3%; in contrast, for 65-y-olds in Japan today, the chance of death is only about 0.8%.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3497824/

[thaumasiotes]

The figure for Japanese elderly today reflects a life expectancy in the 80s. There's nothing weird about a mortality rate of 5% at 65 corresponding to a life expectancy close to 70.

[ColanR]

Why are you being downvoted? You're talking about relevant periods of history, and providing a much more interesting counterpoint.

[philipkglass]

I couldn't downvote jly's reply to me even if I wanted to. I didn't upvote it either though. It doesn't cite any evidence and it appeared to be incorrect when I searched for evidence on my own.

See for example: Gurven, M., & Kaplan, H. (2007). Longevity Among Hunter-Gatherers: A Cross-Cultural Examination.

Population and Development Review, 33(2), 321–365.

doi:10.1111/j.1728-4457.2007.00171.x [1]

It was discussed here [2]:

https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/12o4py/what_...

For the longest living group estimate, 5 year olds can expect to live to ~54, 10 year olds to 55, and even 20 year olds only have a life expectancy of 60. Life expectancy only starts approaching 70 for a hunter-gatherer who survived into his 40s.

This would put life expectancy of young adult hunter-gatherers ahead of that of young adults living in historical agricultural societies, but behind that of those living in highly developed countries in the last several decades. The life expectancy of people living in developed countries today has more than "gained back what was lost since the industrial and technological revolutions."

[1] Enter DOI into sci-hub for full text.

[2] The link to the full text of the PDF in that Reddit post is now broken, which is why I noted the DOI.

[sunstone]

Yes, and not only that but current hunter gatherers are restricted to the most marginal environments so they are the worst case.