ABSTRACT
In the minds of some who consider the problem of school-age pregnancy and childbearing, there is an implicit assumption that it is somehow a return to a more primitive form of reproductive life cycle. That is, the basic human condition is viewed as one in which reproductive activity begins early, fertility is poorly controlled, and childbearing, the main business of life, preoccupies young women and girls from the earliest possible age. For 1974, or about the time that adolescent pregnancy began to be a matter of widespread public concern, the Alan Guttmacher Institute reported on the characteristics of these pregnancies. About 600,000 were completed, the others ending in early termination either spontaneously or therapeutically. The !Kung are the most extensively studied hunting-gathering population to date, and are thought to provide evidence regarding human adaptation during the vast majority of the course of human evolution.
