Why do pygmies only live an average of 16 to 24 years?

Question

'Pygmy' is a rather generic term for very ethnic groups/races of under a certain height. It's not eclusive to African tribes. Negritos are still little, but about half way between a pygmy and the human norm.

But it does seem that the smaller they are, the shorter their lifespan is.

Answer 1

I don't know for sure. But if I had to come up with something, like I am here, I'd say first of all, probably one factor is being in a tropical zone. Half of all life is in this zone. This includes variations of bacteria and viruses too. You know that when ever someone like you or I visit the tropics and rain forests, the first concern is deseases. Secondly, maybe their diet doesn't support longevity. And last, as with the deseases, maybe a lifetime of exposure to parasites takes a toll too. But all these are only guesses.

Answer 2

Lets have their gene s mapped

Answer 3

What a load of Tripe you speak, In one breath your saying they live on average to twenty four years maximum, and then you go on to say they menopause around thirty years old. They are dead at twenty four you said. Make up your mind, which is it twenty four or thirty?.

Answer 4

I don't know where you got that information from, but it is certainly not true. Check your source for credibility.

Answer 5

Aborigine Pygmies?

If you mean Australian Aborigines no such creature!

Read up on population genetics.

The "Negritos" of South East Asia differ genetically from the Pygmies of Africa.

You need to be more precise in your choice of terminology?

Answer 6

To date we don't know, but some groups were unaware of how to make fire until the 20th century & they appear to be the "purest" source of MtDNA haplogroup M.  This would vary among the different isolated groups of negritos scattered about the Pacific islands near East Asia (including a nearly extinct group in Australia.) Several genetic researchers "think" they can be used to resolve some questions on aging.  In short, these people have remained isolated for 1000s of years in many cases. Some groups have been isolated for longer than others. Therefore they are also very valuable for the study of bottleneck theories.

Some use the word negrito & others call them aborigine Pygmies, both terms apply to a large number of small people in South East Asia & the Pacific Islands in that area.

This aging appears to have a genetic root that has sparked much interest in the field of human genetics. I'll try to return with some links for you.

See "adamese" or "andamanese" & try this link:

http://www.andaman.org/book/chapter6/tex...

I have some old books around here that mention this group of people, but of course that was before DNA was widely known.

Sorry about that link... donno what is wrong with it.  Do a google on "Negrito Haplogroup M" & it will bring up many good links. I'm also sorry we have so many ignorant people that respond to serious questions... welcome aboard.