Average age of first pregnancy among hunter-gatherers is age 16. 12-14 year old girls getting pregnant is a terrible idea. Their organs are too small and the size of the fetus weighs down on the organs, and they can get ripped up inside ~20% of the time. It’s a disaster and requires surgery. By age 15 this risk is gone.
However, women’s hips widen at age 18-19 in order for them to carry a baby. Pregnancy before this age is a bit risky because the girl’s hips are not wide enough. Females should definitely delay pregnancy until age 18-19. It’s not teen pregnancy that’s the problem. The problem is teenage minor pregnancy.
Please follow and like us:
3
20
20
20
>12-14 year old girls getting pregnant is a terrible idea
Which is why it rarely happens. It’s common for girls in HG societies to have sex at 12-14, but they rarely get pregnant that young. Evolution has selected against fertility at that age.
You might then ask what’s the point in having sex at that age if it doesn’t result in pregnancy? Well, we see a similar thing in other animals. Chimp females start puberty about 8 and become sexually active soon after at about 10. They develop sexual swellings on their bums that signal to the males that they’re ready to start having sex. But they don’t usually get pregnant until about 14.
The function of having sex slightly before the onset of their fertility is probably about establishing themselves in the mating arena. Chimp females often leave their home group when they come up to puberty and go and live in another troop. Once they get there at about 10 years of age they fuck all the adult males to establish themselves in the new troop*. Sex isn’t just directly about reproduction – it also serves social and bonding purposes.
In our species the females start puberty at about 10, grow boobs and become physically ready to have sex soon after 12 or so, but in natural HG societies they don’t typically get pregnant until about 16-18. If they do get pregnant early before 14 they suffer worse outcomes, but those are just rare cases.
The advantages to being sexually active and attractive that young – such as inciting males to compete for them and bonding with their husbands – must outweigh the small risk of early pregnancy. If it didn’t evolution would have thoroughly selected out an interest in sex in girls that young. In reality, girls about 13 are often incredibly horny.
*Imagine the human equivalent. When girls get to about 13 they go and live in the town next over and fuck all the adult men to establish themselves there.
Another issue is that all the bullshit food and drugs nowadays are causing children to start menstruating under age 10. I know you said starting puberty around age 10, and idk if that’s what you meant by “physically ready” at age 12, but technically physically ready is whenever menstruation occurs, I thought..?