Living Near Your Grandmother Has Evolutionary Benefits
Kristen Hawkes was studying the Hadza people, a group of hunter-gatherers in northern
Tanzania. Hawkes was struck by "how productive these old ladies were" at foraging
for food, and she later documented how their help allowed mothers to have more children.
While the help of grandmothers enables mothers to have more children, women who had the genetic makeup for longer living would ultimately have more grandchildren carrying their longevity genes.
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