In the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 95, p 1336, (Feb
3 1998) there is a paper which suggests that grandmothers drove evolution to
create late maturity and a small size at weaning.  They drew their
conclusions from observations of women in hunter-gatherer societies - they
say while a chimp child gets its own lunch, human mothers use up a lot of
resources by sharing food.  They state that post-menopausal women continue
to gather large amounts of food, the surplus often going to their
grandchildren.  Their hypothesis is that this would favour these children,
and so selection for long life.

Note that I have only seen the abstract and a report in New Scientist - the
full article is available but you have to subscribe.  The abstract is
available at http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/95/3/1336

My question - what was the researchers definition of weaning (e.g. cessation
of bf, or introduction of other foods)?  What do they mean by 'small size'
at weaning?  Any comments, anyone seen full paper?
Mary Broadfoot, Paisley, Scotland
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