[MR] About that "They die Young" myth

[Marybeth Lavrakas]

Wish I'd caught this thread sooner.  They really did
die young! Reading demographic history was pretty
boring, but some stuff I recall. Like 1/5 of all women
died because of childbirth, which obviously hapened in
the first half of a potential average life span. Some
arguements were that you could extend that out to 50%
checking out because of childbirth--ie, they might
survive the birth, but die becuase of infections or
from other side effects, like kidney damage, etc.  I
can't remember the death rates for children, but huge
numbers were never making it to adulthood.  A
particular example from a pretty vigorous English
noble family (the Howards, early 16th C): out of 11
children to survive infacy,  5 or 6 made it to
marriage, but only 2-3 had children themselves. 
(sorry to be so hazy, haven't cracked those
dissertation notes in a good long while...). The 2nd
duke had 22 children live beyond age 3 or so, but only
5 (I think) had kids themselves before dieing.  So,
yeah, lots of people were making it to middle age and
beyond, but compared to the number of live births it
was a small group. 


--- ruadh <ruadh at home.com> wrote:
> A part of childhood then was the 'resources' to
> survive were greater as you survived longer.
> Infant-cide and the very sickly going into
> mid-winter would likely receive less of the now more
> valued 'resources'.  This was a short segment of a
> Discovery Channel special.  
> The research might look at the seasons of death,
> sorted by age & sex.    Ru
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> Sent: Monday, June 11, 2001 7:42 PM
> Subject: Re: [MR] About that "They die Young" myth
> 
> 
> 
> 
>   I read an interesting list of ages at death of
> some well-known medieval 
>   persons, and thought you'd be interested. We all
> know that the life 
>   expectancy was considerably lower than in modern
> times, but I, for one, need 
>   a reminder that it didn't mean it was lead to the
> perception of as "being 
>   old" at 45 (except in the minds of teenagers and
> children, of course! ) 
> 
> 
> 


=====
Lady Kateryn Rous
Companion of the Pearl
House Broussard
Windmasters' Hill

Vigilo et exspecto

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