Littler Kids Lighten the Load.

The article presents an analysis of how to rear children. After a long day spent chasing after their small children, many exhausted parents may feel like they are raising monkeys. But while kids may act like the fellow primates, they do not grow like them. Unlike monkeys, humans stay relatively small during childhood and then experience a growth spurt during adolescence. A new study suggests that this strategy may help increase the number of offspring parents can successfully rear. Anthropologists Michael Gurven of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Robert Walker of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque tested an idea by studying two hunter-gatherer societies who forage for food much like early humans are believed to have done.