Derkx Inez, Menn Gina, Subedi Sudarshan, Upadhyaya Nagendra, Rajbhandari Prajwal, Gyawali Anita, Mace Ruth, Bertranpetit Jaume, Vinicius Lucio, Migliano Andrea Bamberg
Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Evol Hum Sci. 2024 Nov 11;6:e45. doi: 10.1017/ehs.2024.42. eCollection 2024.
Hunter-gatherer populations underwent a mass extinction in the Neolithic, and in present times face challenges such as explicit sedentarisation policies. An exception is in Nepal, where the nomadic Raute people receive monthly governmental individual payments. One consequence of the money transfers has been a significant increase in alcohol consumption, with nearly all individuals drinking industrially produced alcohol. Here we investigate the Raute demography based on a full census of 144 individuals. We show that the Raute exhibit the short life expectancies typical of other hunter-gatherer populations from Africa, Asia and America. Bayesian survival trajectory analysis demonstrated that heavy drinking by either parent substantially reduces offspring survival to age 15. Bayesian regressions revealed a significant effect of heavy drinking on maternal fertility by decreasing the number of living children and reducing the proportion of live children at the end of maternal reproductive life. Although the absence of data prior to monetary support precludes a direct assessment of long-term demographic trends, relatively stable population sizes over the last decades and a fertility rate close to the replacement rate rule out an imminent population crash. Further studies are required to elucidate the Rautes' origins and relationship with other nomadic people in the region.
狩猎采集人群在新石器时代经历了大规模灭绝，在当今时代面临着诸如明确的定居政策等挑战。尼泊尔是个例外，在那里，游牧的劳特人每月会收到政府的个人补贴。资金转移的一个后果是酒精消费量显著增加，几乎所有人都饮用工业生产的酒精。在此，我们基于对144人的全面普查对劳特人的人口统计学特征进行了调查。我们发现，劳特人呈现出与来自非洲、亚洲和美洲的其他狩猎采集人群典型的低预期寿命。贝叶斯生存轨迹分析表明，父母一方酗酒会大幅降低子女活到15岁的几率。贝叶斯回归显示，酗酒对孕产妇生育能力有显著影响，表现为存活子女数量减少以及在孕产妇生殖生命结束时活产子女比例降低。尽管在获得资金支持之前缺乏数据，无法直接评估长期人口趋势，但过去几十年相对稳定的人口规模以及接近更替率的生育率排除了人口即将崩溃的可能性。需要进一步研究来阐明劳特人的起源以及他们与该地区其他游牧民族的关系。
