Do we reach adolescence too early in modern cultures?

I just read Why We Love and The First Sex by Helen Fisher. In both of these she describes how in hunter/gathering societies in so called developing countries, girls often do not reach puberty until 16/17 and are often subfertile until 18-20 because they eat a lot of lean foods and get a lot of exercise, whereas girls in industrial societies reach puberty around 12/13 as a result of more fat and less exercise.

Do you think it is in fact unnatural for girls to go through puberty at 12/13?

I know I would rather have not had all that shit hit me until around 16/17. I think 12 or 13 is too young to start morphing into an adult.

Also, girls in those societies are more free to experiment with sex because they are subfertile until much older, thus teen pregnancy is less of a problem.

Thoughts?

 

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You answered your own question.

Do you think hunter-gatherers are more natural than we are? There is a school of thought that says that skyscrapers are just as natural as beaver dams.

 

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I asked for other people's thoughts, not just the answer to a question.

Ok, I'll rephrase myself.

Would it be healthier to reach puberty later? Less issues? More time to be a kid?

 

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I think it is weird when girls show there "womenhood" at an early age, my cousin was 11 when she had her first menstrual cycle and I did at 16, and did have sex until 18, I feel this process of my formation has made me much better of than if I had developed earlier in my life, at say about 11-13.

 

I think early puberty is definitely a bad thing, you don't get time to be a kid.

I can't believe people actually get told to see a doctor if they don't menstruate at 15/16 or so.

 

When we are young we want to be older, when we are old we want to be young again. Ironic isn't it.

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I didn't say anything about age or youth, I was talking about the process of puberty.

 

I think I heard that the female body's optimum age to get pregnant is 15.
It's natural I suppose but in an emotional sense that's way too young obviously.

Anyway, people can't help going through puberty. It's not like one child is going to say "I'm gonna start my period at 13" and another one says "ew, I'm gonna start mine at 16"

I think the way we've evolved with better nutrition, less disease etc. means that people are starting adolescence and puberty much younger than they did a couple of hundred years ago but I don't necessarily think that it's a bad thing.

We're not living in an innocent world so it's unlikely that anyone is going to stay innocent or ignorant of the bad things in the world for too long anyway.

 

I know , I was just waxing philosophically there with you.

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I really don't have much worry about such things as they will happen when they will happen.

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Twas ever thus though eh?
I'm pretty happy with my age right now.

 

I thought there were quite a few disorders that are more likely when the mother is very young...

Also, you're still growing at 15, it would seriously mess up your skeleton.

I agree we don't live in an innocent world...still, better if you don't have to grow up too early.

 

I'm not saying that's fact, I just thought I heard it quite a while ago. Could be wrong!

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Yeah that's true, I think as it is now is pretty good. The earlier people know about the bad things in life the earlier they'll be able to protect themselves from them. That's my theory anyway.

 

I think it just means your healthier. I started puberty at about 9 or so, had my first period at 11 and I'm glad I didn't have to deal with all of that in high school, I felt like I had more time to get to know my body. If I hadn't started puberty until 17 or 18. I'd still have to deal with the nuances of a constantly changing body along with finishing college and deciding on a career and getting married, college is not the best time to feel physically awkward. It would be another added stress for me. Although I know I'm not completely finished growing, but the slight changes I experience now aren't dramatic nor are they stressful. I'm glad I'm finished with puberty. Whenever I had an issue with my body my parents were there for me, now I'm on my own.

 

I guess I'm just strange regards wishing I'd started puberty later.

I recoiled at the whole idea of womanhood. I felt like my identity was gone and I was nothing more than a raging bag of sexual organs. That and ASD related shit - I was VERY asocial and cold at that age - was really not a recipe for fun.

 

Heh, reminds me of that one fake George Carlin chain-letter:

"Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited
about aging that you think in fractions. "How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!"

You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on
five! That's the key. You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. "How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16!

And then the greatest day of your life . . . you become 21. Even the
words sound like a ceremony . . . YOU BECOME 21. . . YEAS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk. He TURNED, we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40.

Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 . . . and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a
day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday! You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime.

And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I was JUST 92." Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!"

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- N

 

This conflicts with studies I've read that describe our mid to late teens as the time our bodies are most ready to have children.
Stone Age woman died relatively very young, therefore her fertility peaked at a time corresponding to a shorter life-span. Wouldn't a Stone-Age girl have been subjected to lean foods and a lot of exercise?

 

Good post.

 

I honestly don't know. I just went with what the book said to be honest.