Among other primates, human children are characterized by being fed by older individuals even after weaning.Food donation keeps childhood mortality relatively low in humans, but this is a cross-sectional study of different human populations to see what children actually eat during this period. Not until.

　Therefore, in this study, we meta-analyzed the data of ancient human bone populations around the world for the past 1 years, and compared the eating habits of children after weaning with the eating habits of adults (female and male) in the same group.Since the stable isotope ratio of carbon and nitrogen contained in ancient human bones records information on the dietary habits before life, by using these values ​​as an index, the difference in diet between children and adults (accounting for the total food). You can know the proportion of plants).The study used data from up to 36 ancient human bone populations.

　As a result of the analysis, the difference in eating habits between children and adults (female / male) after weaning was very small, if any.However, in the group living by hunting and collecting, there was no significant difference in eating habits between post-weaning children and adults (female / male), but in the group of farmers / urban residents, post-weaning children> adult females. > In the order of adult males, the proportion of plants in the diet tended to be slightly higher.Previous studies have suggested that farmers tend to use grains and plants more often as baby food, but studies have shown that the foods consumed by children after weaning have a similar tendency.

Paper information:[American Journal of Physical Anthropology] Post-weaning diet in archaeological human populations: A meta-analysis of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios of child skeletons