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Seems like life expectency is artifically low if you actually survived childhood.
ie, a bit later, i have an article from the mid 1700's listing deaths in London. One person was listed as dieing at the age of 103! many many others living untill their 70', 80's and 90's. BUT...but there was a large number of people that died between the ages of 0-3.
So, if you survived childhood how long could you expect to live? Over 35 I would assume!
It also depended on which level of society you lived at.. better food, better sanitation and medical care.
Also protected from the perils of dangerous labor. Nearly all work was grunt work, with high risk of workplace accidents. Jobsite hazard was probably the principal cause of death. I'm not sure sanitation was a factor, not many people (if any) associated sanitation with health, and cities were so filthy, poor sanitation would have been impossible to escape from.
True about the sanitation part.. where I was going with that was rich people could, and usually did leave the cities for the country home during hot summers. During the Plague people outside the cities fared much better than in the filth of the cities.
What throws off the life expectancy rates for these period (if there are any at all) is the child death rates, and the death by famine and deseises and plagues and accidents. Just breaking a leg could be fatal.
Other than that, I've read somewhere that people in the middle ages, if somehow surviving wars and childhood deseases and accidents, died of old age at pretty much the same age as today - 70 or 80 years old.
Seems like life expectency is artifically low if you actually survived childhood.
ie, a bit later, i have an article from the mid 1700's listing deaths in London. One person was listed as dieing at the age of 103! many many others living untill their 70', 80's and 90's. BUT...but there was a large number of people that died between the ages of 0-3.
So, if you survived childhood how long could you expect to live? Over 35 I would assume!
Yes -- those average life expectancies from the pre-modern periods should be interpreted carefully.
We don't know for certain, of course, but the best estimates we have is that during the High Middle Ages, for example (roughly 1000-1300), about 25% of children died before the age of 1, and another 25% or so died before the age of 12. Infant mortality improved little until the mid-1800's. Lots of women also died as a result of pregnancy and related complications, and since the first pregnancy is the most perilous, you had lots of women dying in their teens and early 20's. Children and the elderly also succumbed to disease more readily. These deaths really throw off the statistic and make it deceptive. In reality, if you made it to 30, there was a good chance you'd live 30 more years. People who survived childhood and childbirth generally lived until their mid- to late 50's, but there were also a lot of people living into their 60's and 70's.
Most European infants died at birth or a few days later until an Austrian, I don't recall his name, found during the 18th Century that if people tending the part washed their hands and the birth happened in a clean surrounding, Infant Mortality was next to zero.
Such measures, carried during the Illustration period in Europe, latter part of the 18th Century (Sewer systems, not throwing fecal heces ourt of the window, public hospitals) and the irruption of potatoes were so determinant that European population grew so much that famines and wars broke out, and massive immigration to America.
Quite comparable to what happened in Africa during this century.
Infant mortality in Middle Ages fluctuated widely, accounting from 60 % in cities to as low as 10 or 20 % in the countryside.
During Medieval Times, the only people that washed their bodies on regular basis were:
1. Jews
2. "Ignorant Peasants".
3. Muslims, in Spain
Christians believed that washing your body was "unholy and pagan".
Since Romans bathed everyday and their meeting place were public baths, Christians, that rebuked everything Roman, thought that such a custom was "sinful and pagan".
So Christians were "filthy people".
Christians though that one's odor was a integral part of your personality.
For example, in Spain, when Christians diplomats and noblemen visited Granada, the last Muslim Kingdom in Spain that lasted until 1492, they had servants spraying perfume after them.
Last edited by Leovigildo; 08-10-2009 at 04:11 PM..
You could probably draw a reasonable parallel between the Middle Ages in Europe, and Africa today. A huge majority of Africans have never been exposed to modern medicine, and receive treatment perhaps comparable to that of the Middle Ages. In Africa today, there are ten countries with an infant mortality rate over 100 (10%) and twenty African countries where the life expectancy is under 50. And those are reported statistics, , so probably largely reflect urban populations, pr at least alongside motorable roads, where deaths are reported to central registries.
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