Infant carrying: The role of increased locomotory costs in early tool development

Among the costs of reproduction, carrying one's infant incurs one of the greatest drains on maternal energy, simply because of the added mass alone. Because of the dearth of archaeological evidence, however, how early bipeds dealt with the additional cost of having to carry infants who were les...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of physical anthropology 2007-06, Vol.133 (2), p.841-846
Main Authors: Wall-Scheffler, C.M., Geiger, K., Steudel-Numbers, K.L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Animals
Anthropological methodology
arm swing
baby carrying
Biological anthropology
Cross-Over Studies
Cults, religions and funeral rites
energetics
Energy
Energy Metabolism - physiology
Ethnology and art
Female
Human paleontology
Humans
Infant
Infant Care - methods
Infant, Newborn
Infants
locomotion
Locomotion - physiology
Male
Mankind origin and evolution
Maternal Behavior - physiology
Methodology and general studies
Motherhood
Oxygen Consumption
Physical anthropology
Prehistory and protohistory
Primates - physiology
tool use
Tool Use Behavior - physiology
Walking - physiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Among the costs of reproduction, carrying one's infant incurs one of the greatest drains on maternal energy, simply because of the added mass alone. Because of the dearth of archaeological evidence, however, how early bipeds dealt with the additional cost of having to carry infants who were less able to support their body weight against gravity is not particularly well understood. This article presents evidence on the caloric drain of carrying an infant in one's arms versus having a tool with which to sling the infant and carry her passively. The burden of carrying an infant in one's arms is on average 16% greater than having a tool to support the baby's mass and seems to have the potential to be a greater energetic burden even than lactation. In addition, carrying a baby in one's arms shortens and quickens the stride. An anthropometric trait that seems to offset some of the increased cost of carrying a baby in the arms is a wider bi‐trochanteric width. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
ISSN:0002-9483
1096-8644
DOI:10.1002/ajpa.20603