HORTICULTURAL ACTIVITY PREDICTS LATER LOCALIZED LIMB STATUS IN A CONTEMPORARY PRE-INDUSTRIAL POPULATION Forager-farmer activities and bone strength

摘要

ObjectivesModern humans may have gracile skeletons due to low physical activity levels and mechanical loading. Tests using prehistoric skeletons are limited by the inability to assess behaviour 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.