Infant burial reveals a Mesolithic society that honoured its youngest members

It's always fascinating to see how other cultures lived and where they assigned value or importance in their culture. That said, I don't understand stories like this that seem surprised that past cultures mourned loss. Certainly they faced a lot more infant mortality and shorter overall lifespans than we do, such that one might think they would become hardened to it, but it would be hard to believe they would be able to completely turn off the emotions. Some might say that I'm overlooking that this was a female child and that these past societies lacked equality and gender enlightenment of our modern society. Even on that I find myself questing why we make these assumptions. It's pretty clear there are some universal constants through time and culture - parents love their children. They may parent differently based on time and place, but it's an innate human behavior to love and mourn them.

>Child funerary treatment provides important insights into who was considered a person and afforded the attributes of an individual self, moral agency, and eligibility for group membership. Neve shows that even the youngest females were recognized as full persons in her society.

Alternatively, it shows that ancient people were as terrified of baby ghost hauntings as we are today. Those baby ghosts need to be appeased, through costly ritual and material sacrifice, lest they return and torment the living.

I mean, it seems as valid an interpretation as the article authors' one, no?