Early mothers may have saved us
JOBURG - The evolution and survival of our species may owe a huge debt to early human mothering methods.
Research being carried out on two fossils found in the Cradle of Humankind has given all the more reason to celebrate mothers this May.
According to the Maropeng Visitors Centre spokesperson, Lindsay Marshall, the discovery of the MH1 and MH2 Australopithecus sediba fossils was of vital importance in piecing together the evidence for human evolution and a reminder of the bond between mother and child.
“While research still continues, scientists believe that this fossil evidence reveals a young child and its mother who died together almost two million years ago,” said Marshall.
“According to Dr Sara Hrdy, this is… roughly the time period when early hominid mothers started accepting help from others in child-rearing.”
Hrdy, hailed as a leading authority on motherhood, wrote the book Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding.
Marshall said that Hrdy examined how a small behavioural change by our early ancestral mothers, that of allowing others to hold and help care for their young, was responsible for some signature human attributes, including empathy, co-operation and our large brains.
“It has only been in the last 15 years, as we’ve started to look at what it takes in a hunter-gatherer context to keep children alive, [that] what we’re learning highlights the importance, not just of mothers or parents, but also of alloparents – group members other than the genetic mother and father. Grandmothers, aunts, uncles, cousins and older siblings,” said Hrdy.
The scientist said this behavioural difference between early hominids and other ape species could have been the reason for their sudden increase in numbers.
“Even today, other apes and primates have not learnt the importance of this behaviour… A mother orangutan… will not allow any other individual to take her infant… Human mothers do allow others to hold and help carry and care for their infants shortly after birth,” said Hrdy.
“This is a really major difference, although until now not much was made of it.”
Marshall said these findings gave credence to the African proverb that states it takes a village to raise a child.
“There was just so much emphasis on hunting and warfare that we overlooked how important child-rearing was,” said Hrdy.
“After all, in evolutionary terms, offspring survival is where the rubber hits the road.”
Details: 014 577 9000; www.maropeng.co.za
