Helle Samuli, Brommer Jon E, Pettay Jenni E, Lummaa Virpi, Enbuske Matti, Jokela Jukka
Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland
Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland.
Proc Biol Sci. 2014 Nov 7;281(1794):20141559. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2014.1559.
A shift from nomadic foraging to sedentary agriculture was a major turning point in human evolutionary history, increasing our population size and eventually leading to the development of modern societies. We however lack understanding of the changes in life histories that contributed to the increased population growth rate of agriculturalists, because comparable individual-based reproductive records of sympatric populations of agriculturalists and foragers are rarely found. Here, we compared key life-history traits and population growth rate using comprehensive data from the seventieth to nineteenth century Northern Finland: indigenous Sami were nomadic hunter-fishers and reindeer herders, whereas sympatric agricultural Finns relied predominantly on animal husbandry. We found that agriculture-based families had higher lifetime fecundity, faster birth spacing and lower maternal mortality. Furthermore, agricultural Finns had 6.2% higher annual population growth rate than traditional Sami, which was accounted by differences between the subsistence modes in age-specific fecundity but not in mortality. Our results provide, to our knowledge, the most detailed demonstration yet of the demographic changes and evolutionary benefits that resulted from agricultural revolution.
从游牧觅食向定居农业的转变是人类进化史上的一个重大转折点，它增加了我们的人口规模，并最终导致了现代社会的发展。然而，我们并不了解那些促成了农业人口增长率提高的生活史变化，因为很少能找到同时存在的农业人口和觅食人口基于个体的可比生殖记录。在此，我们利用17世纪至19世纪芬兰北部的全面数据，比较了关键的生活史特征和人口增长率：当地的萨米人是游牧狩猎捕鱼者和驯鹿牧民，而与之同时存在的芬兰农业人口则主要依赖畜牧业。我们发现，以农业为基础的家庭具有更高的终身生育力、更快的生育间隔以及更低的孕产妇死亡率。此外，芬兰农业人口的年人口增长率比传统萨米人高6.2%，这是由不同生存方式在特定年龄生育力上的差异而非死亡率差异造成的。据我们所知，我们的研究结果提供了迄今为止关于农业革命所带来的人口变化和进化益处的最详细例证。
