The average was significantly higher than 14 even in hunter gatherer societies. Women in studied hunter gather societies had their first kid around 19 with a mix of teens and early 20’s being common.

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pfannkuchen 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Wasn’t puberty later back then too? Like people weren’t waiting around post puberty saving themselves for whatever, puberty just happened alongside full adult body maturation, not before as often happens today.

	▲	frankest 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Puberty even today has to do somewhat with body weight. You have to reach a certain level to get it. Malnutrition may have delayed it in prehistoric times.
	▲	micromacrofoot 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		actually the later puberty ages may have been a temporary side-effect of malnutrition common during industrialization, there's some evidence that hunter-gatherers (and even people during medieval times) had good access to animal protein, fats, and other necessary vitamins and minerals from plant life (nutrition plays a big role in puberty onset)

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micromacrofoot 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Biologically this may simply be because it's safer to give birth when you're fully grown

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lo_zamoyski 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That may be true, but I'm thinking of much of the ancient world. It would not have been unusual then.