Daily Physical Activity and Time-Space Using of Pygmy Hunter-Gatherers’ Children in Southeast Cameroon

A comparative analysis of fetal to subadult femoral midshaft bone distribution of prehistoric Jomon hunter-gatherers and modern Japanese

“…However, we found that medullary expansion rate is significantly lower in the Jomon than in the modern Japanese femora, accentuating femoral diaphyseal bone mass and robusticity in the toddler to childhood period of the Jomon (see, for example, the elevated regression line of CA against LTratio in Figure 3). Recent field work on the Cameroon Baka pygmy (Hagino and Yamauchi, 2014) reported that the physical activity levels of hunting-gathering subsistence children are probably considerably greater than in urbanized children. It is possible that greater physical activity results in lower rates of medullary cavity bone resorption, which may have resulted in the comparatively smaller endosteal dimensions of femora of the Jomon toddler to childhood age group.…”

Adolescence and innovation in the European Upper Palaeolithic

“…This latter finding accords with sexual selection theory that proposes that the sex with the higher potential reproductive rate will compete more strongly for access to potential partners ( ibid .). While it is hard to state with certainty the reason for specific instances of long-distance travel (see for example, Hagino & Yamaucho, 2014 ), there is no doubt that this is a frequent occurrence among teenage hunter–gatherers. Ethnographers commonly note the high levels of absence of adolescent boys in hunter–gatherer camps (e.g.…”

“…Ethnographers commonly note the high levels of absence of adolescent boys in hunter–gatherer camps (e.g. Hagino & Yamaucho, 2014 ; Milner et al, 2014 ). Evolutionarily, there may have been selection for navigation skills in adolescent males.…”

Patterns of physical activity in hunter-gatherer children compared with US and UK children

“…From the limited research detailing hunter-gatherer children's activity levels, a study of space use in Baka children of Cameroon using waist-worn accelerometers observed children to undertake over 20,000 steps a day, with daily distances increasing with age. 27 Another, based on observational data estimated an increase in moderate and vigorous intensity activity with age in Hadza children. 28 There are, however, gaps in the current literature on hunter-gatherer children's activity levels: 1) we lack direct comparisons of activity across cultures, 2) it is unclear whether boys and girls differ in their levels of activity as often observed in high-income populations, 3) the daily and hourly variation in activity levels are not well documented.…”