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Less important but your fitness is still relevant in terms of survival of the tribe, which is selected for since it affects the survival of any one individual.

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Were there tribe members that lived in their 50s? I thought it was common to die before 40s.

Low life expectancies in the past were mostly due to high child mortality.

I know that and have accounted for that. I'm talking about prehistoric times, when we were developing.

Based on the data from modern hunter-gatherer populations, it is estimated that at 15, life expectancy was an additional 39 years (total 54), with a 0.60 probability of reaching 15.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy

50s you can still be pretty strong and endurant, provided no accident/degenerative disease happened. I would expect tribe of anybody but mindless savages would often protect their older if only due to their experience in survival (but maybe we were pretty much mindless savages during most of our evolution). 60s is when any remaining strength takes nose dive

> 60s is when any remaining strength takes nose dive

Isn't that given modern nutrition, hygiene, water access, tooth cleaning etc?

The other commenter said that people that survived childhood during these times usually were expected to live around 54 years.

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