A cross-cultural investigation of learning among Hadza and BaYaka hunter- gatherer children and adolescents from Tanzania and Congo

Unlike other species, humans can be found in nearly every ecological niche in the world, from the Kalahari Desert to the Arctic Circle. Humans are able to inhabit these environments because we rely on skill and knowledge transmitted and improved upon from one generation to the next. Thus, studying learning is essential to understanding the diversity in, and evolution of, human cultures. Hunter-gatherers may be especially important to study knowledge transmission because these populations are culturally distinct from Western societies, and because hunting and gathering is the oldest human subsistence strategy. Thus, hunter- gatherers can shed light on the cultural variability in, and evolution of, learning in humans. This dissertation sought to explore how teaching, play, and participation contribute to knowledge acquisition using an observational dataset of 46 Hadza and 65 BaYaka children and adolescents from Tanzania and Congo. Specifically, I sought to investigate (1) how similarities and differences in the socioecologies of forager childhood contributed to variation in teaching, (2) the development of gender-typed play and gender segregation during play among hunter- gatherer children and adolescents, and (3) how cultural and ecological variation contributed to differences in children’s participation in economic work. Results showed that child-to-child teaching was common among foragers, but that the identity of specific child teachers varied according to subsistence and settlement patterns. Features inherent to hunter-gatherer life, such as living in small, mobile camps with few age mates, and a gendered division of labour in adulthood, explained observed gender differences in the play of hunter-gatherer children. Finally, BaYaka and Hadza adults provided opportunities for children’s autonomous participation, and in doing so, facilitated the acquisition of both skill-based knowledge, the foundational schema of autonomy, and gender norms. Taken together, these findings challenged the accepted notion that children are passive recipients of resources, instead highlighting the ways in which children actively seek, and transmit, knowledge. These findings also highlighted the importance of examining ecological, cultural, and demographic contexts for child development.the Cambridge International Trust the SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship (Award no.752-2016-0555) the Ruggles-Gates Fund for Anthropological Scholarship of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland the Smuts Memorial Fund the Worts Travelling Grant and the Cambridge School of Biological Sciences Fieldwork Fund

BaYaka education: From the forest to the ORA (Observer, Réflechir, Agir) classroom

Schooling is part of a global effort to help Indigenous peoples adapt to their changing social and ecological worlds and assert their human rights. There is ongoing discussion among anthropologists and educational researchers as to whether schooling meets these goals. Here, we examine the harms and benefits of ORA (Observer, Réflechir, Agir), a school system developed to educate BaYaka children from the northern Republic of the Congo. Many BaYaka have become more sedentary in recent years, spend more time working for their farmer neighbours or in towns, and have lost control of their traditional forest areas due to logging. ORA aims to provide a pre-schooling structure free from discrimination to 1) encourage the retention of Indigenous traditions, 2) reduce vulnerability and marginalisation of Indigenous populations, and 3) integrate children into the national public schooling system. Here, we contrast BaYaka pedagogy, social relationships, health education, experiences of discrimination, foraging activities, and cultural and spiritual beliefs with ORA. We argue that ORA’s curriculum structure and the cultural values transmitted in the classroom are at odds with BaYaka children’s forest learning and lifeways. Especially, while ORA explicitly seeks to provide BaYaka children with educational experiences free from discrimination from their farmer neighbours, a lack of BaYaka teachers and mother-tongue instruction may in fact disempower and disenfranchise BaYaka students. We end by discussing alternative approaches to education that can benefit BaYaka children, and outline areas for future research. A short ethnographic film on ORA curriculum and classroom life by Romain Duda is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB8VH0txKZM

Dyadic inter-group cooperation in shotgun hunting activities in a Congo Basin village.

Understanding the dynamics of inter-group cooperation in human adaptation has been the subject of recent empirical and theoretical studies in evolutionary anthropology, beginning to fill gaps in our knowledge of how interactions across political, economic and social domains can - and often do - lead to stable, large-scale cooperation. Here we investigate dyadic intergroup cooperation in shotgun hunting in the Republic of the Congo. In the Congo Basin, inter-group cooperation between foragers and farmers is at the centre of an exchange system maintained by traditional norms and institutions such as fictive kinship. Here, we focused on what factors predict cooperative shotgun hunting exchanges between BaYaka and Yambe. We conducted structured interviews with 48 BaYaka hunters and 18 Yambe men who organise hunts in a village along the Motaba River. We used Bayesian multilevel regression models to investigate the influence of Yambe and BaYaka attributes on probability of dyadic cooperation. We found that BaYaka men's reputations as skilled hunters and their family size each predicted cooperation in shotgun hunting, whereas there was no effect of Yambe attributes (status, wealth, family size). We discuss the results in terms of evolutionary models of men as hunters and inter-group cooperation, as well as biodiversity conservation implications

L’éducation des BaYaka: De la forêt aux écoles ORA (Observer, Réflechir, Agir)

La scolarisation fait partie d’un effort global visant à aider les peuples autochtones à s’adapter aux changements rapides de leur monde social et écologique et à affirmer leurs droits. La question de savoir si la scolarisation répond à ces objectifs fait l’objet d’un débat permanent parmi les anthropologues et les chercheurs en sciences de l’éducation. Nous examinons dans cet article les avantages et les inconvénients de la pédagogie ORA (Observer, Réflechir, Agir), un système scolaire développé pour éduquer les enfants BaYaka du nord de la République du Congo. Nombreux sont les BaYaka qui dans ces dernières années sont devenus plus sédentaires, passant plus de temps à travailler pour leurs voisins agriculteurs ou dans les villes, et ayant perdu le contrôle de leurs territoires forestiers en raison de l’exploitation forestière. Le système ORA vise à fournir une structure préscolaire exempte de discrimination afin (1) d’encourager le maintien des traditions autochtones, (2) de réduire la vulnérabilité et la marginalisation des populations autochtones et (3) de faciliter l’intégration des enfants dans le système scolaire public national. Dans ce contexte, nous comparons la pédagogie traditionnelle des BaYaka, les relations sociales, l’éducation à la santé, les expériences de discrimination, les activités de subsistance et les pratiques culturelles et rituelles avec ce qui est transmis dans les écoles ORA. Nous soutenons que la structure du programme scolaire ORA et les valeurs transmises en classe sont en contradiction avec l’apprentissage en forêt et le mode de vie des enfants baYaka. En particulier, alors que le système ORA cherche explicitement à offrir aux enfants baYaka des expériences éducatives exemptes de discrimination de la part de leurs voisins agriculteurs, le manque d’enseignants baYaka et d’enseignement en langue maternelle peut en fait les priver de leur autonomie et de leurs droits. Nous terminons l’article en discutant des approches éducatives alternatives qui peuvent bénéficier aux enfants baYaka, et en soulignant les domaines de recherche future. [Un court film ethnographique sur le programme ORA et la vie en classe, réalisé par Romain Duda, est disponible sur https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB8VH0txKZM]

Peer learning and cultural evolution

In this article, we integrate cultural evolutionary theory with empirical research from developmental psychology, cultural anthropology, and primatology to explore the role of peer learning in the development of complex instrumental skills and behavioral norms. We show that instrumental imitation, contingent teaching, generative collaboration, and selective copying contribute to domain-specific transmission of knowledge between peers. Stages of development and characteristics inherent to the learner and model influence how and when children learn from each other. Peer learning is persistent across societies despite cultural beliefs that favor adult–child transmission in some settings. Comparative research hints at the possibility that children's greater motivation to interact with and learn from each other may set humans apart from other primates. We conclude by outlining avenues for future research, including how individual characteristics and developmental changes in social networks, motivation, and cognition may contribute to cultural evolution.</p

Women’s subsistence strategies predict fertility across cultures, but context matters

While it is commonly assumed that farmers have higher, and foragers lower, fertility compared to populations practicing other forms of subsistence, robust supportive evidence is lacking. We tested whether subsistence activities—incorporating market integration—are associated with fertility in 10,250 women from 27 small-scale societies and found considerable variation in fertility. This variation did not align with group-level subsistence typologies. Societies labeled as “farmers” did not have higher fertility than others, while “foragers” did not have lower fertility. However, at the individual level, we found strong evidence that fertility was positively associated with farming and moderate evidence of a negative relationship between foraging and fertility. Markers of market integration were strongly negatively correlated with fertility. Despite strong cross-cultural evidence, these relationships were not consistent in all populations, highlighting the importance of the socioecological context, which likely influences the diverse mechanisms driving the relationship between fertility and subsistence

Growing Under an Acacia Tree: An Open Letter on How to Raise an Anthropologist

Although fieldwork is foundational to socio-cultural anthropology, field methods are rarely incorporated into undergraduate classroom curricula. Drawing on experiences from a semester-long field school in East Africa, we provide a student’s perspective on the importance of fieldwork. We argue that bringing the field into the classroom will enrich students’ theoretical understanding, enhance practical skills within and beyond anthropology, and foster an appreciation for cultural difference. We suggest concrete ways in which field methods can be integrated into classroom settings. Finally, we argue that providing access to field methods outside field school settings may work to reduce the economic barriers to the cultivation of an “ethnographic sensibility”

How small-scale societies achieve large-scale cooperation

For most of our species’ history, humans have lived in relatively small subsistence communities, often called small-scale societies. While these groups lack centralized institutions, they can and often do maintain large-scale cooperation. Here, we explore several mechanisms promoting cooperation in small-scale societies, including (a) the development of social norms that encourage prosocial behavior, (b) reciprocal exchange relationships, (c) reputation that facilitates high-cost cooperation, (d) relational wealth, and (e) risk buffering institutions. We illustrate these with ethnographic and psychological evidence from contemporary small-scale societies. We argue that these mechanisms for cooperation helped past and present small-scale communities adapt to diverse ecological and social niches

Identifying variation in cultural models of resource sharing between hunter-gatherers and farmers: a multi-method, cognitive approach

This book was funded by the EU 7th Framework Programme (7FP), TropicMicroArch 623293 Project (http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/187754_en.html). The book will be Open Access, thanks to FP7 post-grant Open Access (https://www.openaire.eu/postgrantoapilot)