Who teaches children to forage? Exploring the primacy of child-to-child teaching among Hadza and BaYaka Hunter-Gatherers of Tanzania and Congo

Lew‐Levy, Sheina; Kissler, Stephen M; Boyette, Adam H.; Crittenden, Alyssa N.; Mabulla, Ibrahim A.; Hewlett, Barry S.

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2019.07.003

Cited by 82 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…First, both the Hadza and BaYaka reported low rates of horizontal transmission. This finding counters our observational research which showed high rates of child-to-child transmission in both societies (Lew-levy et al 2020). Since much horizontal transmission occurs within the multi-age mixed-sex playgroup, where children seamlessly transition from play to work activities (Crittenden 2016b;, it is likely that children do not consider experiences in the playgroup as salient moments of knowledge transmission, even as they make up a large proportion of children's time allocation in both societies.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 67%

The life history of learning subsistence skills among Hadza and BaYaka foragers from Tanzania and the Republic of Congo

Lew‐Levy¹,

Ringen²,

Crittenden³

et al. 2020

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Aspects of human life history and cognition, such as our long childhoods and extensive use of teaching, theoretically evolved to facilitate the acquisition of complex tasks. The present paper empirically examined the relationship between subsistence task difficulty and age of acquisition, rates of teaching, and rates of oblique transmission among Hadza and BaYaka foragers from Tanzania and the Republic of Congo. We further examined cross-cultural variation in how and from whom learning occurred. Learning patterns and community perceptions of task difficulty were assessed through interviews. We found no relationship between task difficulty, age of acquisition, and oblique transmission, and a weak but positive relationship between task difficulty and rates of teaching. While same-sex transmission was normative in both societies, tasks ranked as more difficult were more likely to be transmitted by men among the BaYaka, but not among the Hadza, potentially reflecting cross-cultural differences in the sexual division of subsistence and teaching labor. Further, the BaYaka were more likely to report learning via teaching, and less likely to report learning via observation, than the Hadza, possibly due to differences in socialization practices. These findings suggest that patterns of transmission are highly variable across cultures.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 67%

The life history of learning subsistence skills among Hadza and BaYaka foragers from Tanzania and the Republic of Congo

Lew‐Levy¹,

Ringen²,

Crittenden³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…BaYaka fathers' teaching involves direct interaction using a variety of behaviors, such as instruction and opportunity scaffolding [66][67][68] . Fathers have also been observed to do more teaching with very young children, whereas less of this "vertical transmission" from parents occurs for older children 67,69 . As direct caregivers, BaYaka fathers are often warm, nurturing, and patient 33 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, fathers' teaching nearly exceeded all other adults combined (15%) 66 . Recent work by Lew-Levy and colleagues has shown that older BaYaka children and adolescents www.nature.com/scientificreports/ commonly accompany adults (not necessarily their parents) to forage 71 , and those trips afford opportunities for learning and teaching 67,69 . In future work, we hope to include further observational data on specific domains of men's daytime direct care as well as family cosleeping, as these have been linked to lower or declining paternal T in multiple other settings 20,[22][23][24][25]72,73 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sharing and caring: Testosterone, fathering, and generosity among BaYaka foragers of the Congo Basin

Gettler

Lew‐Levy

Sarma

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Humans are rare among mammals in exhibiting paternal care and the capacity for broad hyper-cooperation, which were likely critical to the evolutionary emergence of human life history. In humans and other species, testosterone is often a mediator of life history trade-offs between mating/competition and parenting. There is also evidence that lower testosterone men may often engage in greater prosocial behavior compared to higher testosterone men. Given the evolutionary importance of paternal care and heightened cooperation to human life history, human fathers’ testosterone may be linked to these two behavioral domains, but they have not been studied together. We conducted research among highly egalitarian Congolese BaYaka foragers and compared them with their more hierarchical Bondongo fisher-farmer neighbors. Testing whether BaYaka men’s testosterone was linked to locally-valued fathering roles, we found that fathers who were seen as better community sharers had lower testosterone than less generous men. BaYaka fathers who were better providers also tended to have lower testosterone. In both BaYaka and Bondongo communities, men in marriages with greater conflict had higher testosterone. The current findings from BaYaka fathers point to testosterone as a psychobiological correlate of cooperative behavior under ecological conditions with evolutionarily-relevant features in which mutual aid and sharing of resources help ensure survival and community health.

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“…Furthermore, the negative association between children's ages and the frequency with which they received task assignments suggests that children are increasing in competence and internalizing a motivation to perform cooperative work as they age (Boyette and Hewlett 2017; Lew‐Levy, Kissler, et al. 2020). This interpretation is supported by research demonstrating that children in small‐scale societies in general (Bock 2002; Boyette 2016b; Froehle et al.…”

Section: Autonomy Cooperation and The Contexts Of Socializationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socialization, Autonomy, and Cooperation: Insights from Task Assignment Among the Egalitarian BaYaka

Boyette

Lew‐Levy

2020

Ethos

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Across diverse societies, task assignment is a socialization practice that gradually builds children's instrumental skills and integrates them into the flow of daily activities in their community. However, psychosocial tensions can arise when cooperation is demanded from children. Through their compliance or noncompliance, they learn cultural norms and values related to autonomy and obligations to others. Here, we investigate task assignment among BaYaka foragers of the Republic of the Congo, among whom individual autonomy is a foundational cultural schema. Our analysis is based on systematic observations, participant observation, and informal interviews with adults about their perspectives on children's learning and noncompliance, as well as their own learning experiences growing up. We find that children are assigned fewer tasks as they age. However, children's rate of noncompliance remains steady across childhood, indicating an early internalization of a core value for autonomy. Despite demonstrating some frustration with children's noncompliance, adults endorse their autonomy and remember task assignment being critical to their own learning as children. We argue that cross‐cultural variation in children's compliance with task assignments must be understood within a larger framework of socialization as constituted by many integrated and bidirectional processes embedded in a social, ecological, and cultural context. Abstract (French) Dans les diverses sociétés, l'attribution de tâches est une pratique de socialisation précieuse, qui permet de développer progressivement les compétences instrumentales des enfants et les intégrer dans le flux des activités quotidiennes de leur communauté. Dans cet article, nous concentrons notre analyse sur les aspects psychologiques et sociaux de l'attribution de tâches en tant que moments de tension psychosociale où la coopération est demandée aux enfants. En se conformant, ou en ne se conformant pas à ces demandes, ils apprennent les normes et valeurs culturelles liées aux droits individuels à l'autonomie en tension avec la responsabilité d'obéir. Dans le cadre d'une étude de cas, nous étudions les tâches assignées aux enfants parmi les chasseurs‐cueilleurs BaYaka de la République du Congo, parmi lesquels l'autonomie individuelle constitue un schéma culturel fondamental. Les observations comportementales quantitatives et systématiques des tâches assignées aux enfants BaYaka sont contextualisées à l'aide d'une recherche qualitative basée sur l'observation‐participante et des entretiens informels. Des entretiens ont été menés avec des adultes sur leurs perspectives concernant l'apprentissage et le non‐respect des tâches par les enfants, ainsi que sur leurs propres expériences d'apprentissage au cours de leur croissance. Nous avons constaté que les enfants se voient attribuer quantitativement moins de tâches au fur et à mesure qu'ils vieillissent. Cependant, le taux de non‐conformité des enfants reste stable tout au long de l'enfance, ce qui indique une intériorisation pr...

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Who teaches children to forage? Exploring the primacy of child-to-child teaching among Hadza and BaYaka Hunter-Gatherers of Tanzania and Congo

Cited by 82 publications

References 76 publications

The life history of learning subsistence skills among Hadza and BaYaka foragers from Tanzania and the Republic of Congo

The life history of learning subsistence skills among Hadza and BaYaka foragers from Tanzania and the Republic of Congo

Sharing and caring: Testosterone, fathering, and generosity among BaYaka foragers of the Congo Basin

Socialization, Autonomy, and Cooperation: Insights from Task Assignment Among the Egalitarian BaYaka

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