The Aeta and other pygmies have the highest mortality rates among all human populations; their small body size evolved as a life history consequence of early death.
Explanations for the evolution of human pygmies, who are defined as being no more than 60 inches tall, have been debated for years and various ideas have been put forward, such as they are small to cope with heat, to adapt to a forest environment or to make the able to endure food shortages.
In fact the reason is that life is so hard they have to have children particularly young to survive. Because the average life expectancy of pygmies is only between 16 and 24, depending on the population, they have evolved to grow quickly to a smaller adult size so they can have children before they die.
We have been developing the work on Life History of Human Pygmies in the Philippines since 2001. The main focus of study is the Batak and the Aeta “negritos”.
The work in the Philippines combines the classical Anthropology, Behavioural Ecology, and Genetics to solve the problems of the evolution of body size diversity.
Aeta shaman plays the Kulibaw in a ritual to exorcise the "spirit of death".Photographs: courtesy of Rodolph Schlaepfer.
