The Adaptive Nature of Culture: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Returns of Local Environmental Knowledge in Three Indigenous Societies

Abstract

Researchers have argued that the behavioral adaptations that explain the success of our species are partially cultural, i.e., cumulative and socially transmitted. Thus, understanding the adaptive nature of culture is crucial to understand human evolution. We use a cross-cultural framework and empirical data purposely collected to test whether culturally transmitted and individually appropriated knowledge provides individual returns in terms of hunting yields and health and, by extension, to nutritional status, a proxy for individual adaptive success. Data were collected in three subsistence-oriented societies: the Tsimane' (Amazon), the Baka (Congo Basin), and the Punan (Borneo). Results suggest that variations in individual levels of local environmental knowledge relate to individual hunting returns and to self-reported health, but not to nutritional status. We argue that this paradox can be explained through the prevalence of sharing: individuals achieving higher returns to their knowledge transfer them to the rest of the population, which explains the lack of association between knowledge and nutritional status. The finding is in consonance with previous research highlighting the importance of cultural traits favoring group success, but pushes it forward by elucidating the mechanisms through which individual and group level adaptive forces interact.

Late Glacial Human Dispersals in Northern Europe and Disequilibrium Dynamics

“…The viability of species communities under conditions of climate change also falls under the definition of disequilibrium effects. Human adaptations are fundamentally based on knowledge of biotic and abiotic resources and how they change in space and time -often encapsulated by the term traditional and local ecological knowledge (TLEK; Berkes et al, 2000;Reyes-García et al, 2016) -plus the available technology serving as an extrasomatic means of adaption (Binford, 1962: 218, following White, 1959 that modulates carrying capacity. The notion of 'landscape learning' has been put forward as a processoriented approach to the build-up of ecological knowledge, especially in relation to how pioneering dispersers need to acquire ecological place-based locally specific knowledge over some period of time (Rockman, 2001(Rockman, , 2003.…”

Schooling, Local Knowledge and Working Memory: A Study among Three Contemporary Hunter-Gatherer Societies

“…We set up data collection within the framework of a larger research project [ 50 ] for which six researchers conducted 18 months of fieldwork each. To work in the Tsimane’ territory, we obtained written permission of the Great Tsimane’ Council.…”

“…Participants were recruited among adults in the framework study [ 50 ] and participation was strictly voluntary. As the Tsimane’ have a political organization that represents them, we obtained written agreement from this organization (The Great Tsimane’ Council).…”

Prestige and homophily predict network structure for social learning of medicinal plant knowledge

“…One of the most fundamental knowledge domains for human survival is ecological knowledge (cultural adaptations to ecological environments) because in pre-industrial societies this knowledge can make the difference between life and death [15,16]. For example, in Indigenous subsistence societies hunting knowledge is associated with personal health [17] and medicinal plant knowledge is linked with offspring health [18,19] and social influence [20]. Medicinal plants remain relevant to contemporary survival, since plants are still the central component of health care for~80% of the world's population, are used to make~25% of pharmaceutical drugs [21], and provide a global market worth over $84 billion [22].…”