HN Reader

Interesting blog.. Is it not strange to see a post with 126 points and zero comment?

"in nearly all of these societies everyone got married and was expected to get around to having children because the community required them rather than necessarily because they wanted to."

I wonder if this is the uncomfortable truth behind low birth rates in the modern world, and nobody ever really _wanted_ to raise kids so much as they just kinda had to (especially if they wanted to have sex)

The article seems to revolve around defining an archetypal average peasant, which reminded me of [1]. While the article is well-written, I feel like I walk away with very little, given the story's focus on generalities.

[1]: https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/when-u-s-air-force-disc...

I sometimes wonder why such essays mostly extrapolate 'western' history to the entire world.

Can highly recommend Bret Devereaux for those interested in no-bs history on the ancient world. I found him on YT, he speaks well and is a rare break from the enshittification/slop avalanche there.