scholarly journals The life history of human foraging: Cross-cultural and individual variation

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (26) ◽  
pp. eaax9070 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Koster ◽  
Richard McElreath ◽  
Kim Hill ◽  
Douglas Yu ◽  
Glenn Shepard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Cultural Adaptation ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Substantial Variation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Human Foraging ◽  
High Skill

Human adaptation depends on the integration of slow life history, complex production skills, and extensive sociality. Refining and testing models of the evolution of human life history and cultural learning benefit from increasingly accurate measurement of knowledge, skills, and rates of production with age. We pursue this goal by inferring hunters’ increases and declines of skill from approximately 23,000 hunting records generated by more than 1800 individuals at 40 locations. The data reveal an average age of peak productivity between 30 and 35 years of age, although high skill is maintained throughout much of adulthood. In addition, there is substantial variation both among individuals and sites. Within study sites, variation among individuals depends more on heterogeneity in rates of decline than in rates of increase. This analysis sharpens questions about the coevolution of human life history and cultural adaptation.

scholarly journals The Life History Of Human Foraging: Cross-Cultural And Individual Variation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Koster ◽  
Richard Mcelreath ◽  
Kim Hill ◽  
Douglas Yu ◽  
Glenn Shepard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Cultural Adaptation ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Substantial Variation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Human Foraging ◽  
High Skill

ABSTRACTHuman adaptation depends upon the integration of slow life history, complex production skills, and extensive sociality. Refining and testing models of the evolution of human life history and cultural learning will benefit from increasingly accurate measurement of knowledge, skills, and rates of production with age. We pursue this goal by inferring individual hunters’ of hunting skill gain and loss from approximately 23,000 hunting records generated by more than 1,800 individuals at 40 locations. The model provides an improved picture of ages of peak productivity as well as variation within and among ages. The data reveal an average age of peak productivity between 30 and 35 years of age, though high skill is maintained throughout much of adulthood. In addition, there is substantial variation both among individuals and sites. Within study sites, variation among individuals depends more upon heterogeneity in rates of decline than in rates of increase. This analysis sharpens questions about the co-evolution of human life history and cultural adaptation. It also demonstrates new statistical algorithms and models that expand the potential inferences drawn from detailed quantitative data collected in the field.

scholarly journals The Life History of Learning Subsistence Skills among Hadza and BaYaka Foragers from Tanzania and the Republic of Congo

Human Nature ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheina Lew-Levy ◽  
Erik J. Ringen ◽  
Alyssa N. Crittenden ◽  
Ibrahim A. Mabulla ◽  
Tanya Broesch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic

AbstractAspects 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 examines 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 examine 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 owing to differences in socialization practices.

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

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheina Lew-Levy ◽  
Erik Ringen ◽  
Alyssa N. Crittenden ◽  
Ibrahim A. Mabulla ◽  
Tanya Broesch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic

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.

The Evolution of Human Infancy: Why It Helps to Be Helpless

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen R. Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Adaptation ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Developmental State ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Cultural Adaptations ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Emotional Relationships

Humans have a prolonged childhood, which begins with an immature developmental state at birth. We take care of these helpless infants through a variety of cultural adaptations, including material culture, provisioning of food, and shared child care. Our species has long been characterized as having secondary altriciality, but an examination of human life history shows that we are fundamentally precocial, despite seeming helpless at birth. Human babies are also relatively large and overall require substantial attention and energy from caregivers. Previous work has focused on how culture permits us to give birth to helpless young and how our cultural adaptation solves problems stemming from encephalization. The birth of these dependent, costly creatures poses challenges but also creates opportunities by enhancing the development of social and emotional relationships with caregivers as well as language acquisition and enculturation. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Anthropology, Volume 50 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Cross-Cultural Adaptation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Young Yun Kim
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Adaptation ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
Culture Shock ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Identity Transformation ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Adaptation Process ◽  
Common Humanity ◽  
Host Environment ◽  
Cross Cultural Adaptation

Countless immigrants, refugees, and temporary sojourners, as well as domestic migrants, leave the familiar surroundings of their home culture and resettle in a new cultural environment for varying lengths of time. Although unique in individual circumstances, all new arrivals find themselves in need of establishing and maintaining a relatively stable working relationship with the host environment. The process of adapting to an unfamiliar culture unfolds through the stress-adaptation-growth dynamic, a process that is deeply rooted in the natural human tendency to achieve an internal equilibrium in the face of adversarial environmental conditions. The adaptation process typically begins with the psychological and physiological experiences of dislocation and duress commonly known as symptoms of culture shock. Over time, through continuous activities of new cultural learning, most people are able to attain increasing levels of functional and psychological efficacy vis-a-vis the host environment. Underpinning the cross-cultural adaptation process are the two interrelated experiences of deculturation of some of the original cultural habits, on the one hand, and acculturation of new ones, on the other. The cumulative outcome of the acculturation and deculturation experiences is an internal transformation in the direction of assimilation into the mainstream culture. Long-term residents and immigrants are also likely to undergo an identity transformation, a subtle and largely unconscious shift from a largely monocultural to an increasingly intercultural self-other orientation, in which conventional, ascription-based cultural categories diminish in relevance while individuality and common humanity play an increasingly significant role in one’s daily existence. Central to this adaptation process are one’s ability to communicate in accordance to the norms and practices of the host culture and continuous and active engagement in the interpersonal and mass communication activities of the host society.

Life histories of six species of Leptoceridae (Insecta: Trichoptera) in Victoria

1993 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 363 ◽  
Author(s):  
RM St.Clair
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Larval Development ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Adult Emergence ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
Emergence Period ◽  
University Life ◽  
History Of ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Temporary River

Life history studies were carried out for populations of six species of Leptoceridae. Study sites were a permanent river (Acheron), a temporary river (Lerderderg) and a permanent lake (Monash University). Life histories varied in degree of synchrony of larval development, in length of adult emergence period, and from bi- to semivoltine. Oviposition requirements of adults were found to be the major factor influencing synchrony of the life history of one species. Life history features did not ameliorate the effects of the severe drought of 1982-83, nor did drought result in large changes in life histories.

scholarly journals Uncoupling of the Infancy Life History Stage

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Ze’ev Hochberg
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Life History Stage ◽  
Biological Traits ◽  
Deciduous Dentition ◽  
Childhood Growth ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Industrial Societies

<b><i>Background:</i></b> The life history of <i>Homo sapiens</i> is unique in having a comparatively short stage of infancy which lasts for 2–3 years. Infancy is characterized by suckling of breast milk, the development of sensorimotor cognition, the acquisition of language, mini-puberty, deciduous dentition, and almost complete skull growth. Infancy ends with the infancy-childhood growth transition (ICT) and separation from the mother. In modern-day affluent societies, breastfeeding depends on the mother’s decision and may happen at any age, and the characteristic traits of infancy have uncoupled. The data and theory for this contention are presented. <b><i>Summary:</i></b> The biological traits of mini-puberty and ICT characteristic of infancy occur before age 1 along with language acquisition. The cognitive (sensorimotor) component occurs by age 2, and the social component of separation from the mother by any age from 1 to 3 years. <b><i>Key Messages:</i></b> Human life history is based on a coherent stage of infancy which assumes coupling between the biological, cognitive, and social maturation of a baby. This is no longer the case in industrial societies and might never be so again. The upbringing of an infant needs to consider the new biology of this dissociated infancy and a new timetable of the infant’s life-history events.

scholarly journals Changes in cognitive flexibility and hypothesis search across human life history from childhood to adolescence to adulthood

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (30) ◽  
pp. 7892-7899 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Gopnik ◽  
Shaun O’Grady ◽  
Christopher G. Lucas ◽  
Thomas L. Griffiths ◽  
Adrienne Wente ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Middle Childhood ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Causal Relation ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Cognition And Culture ◽  
Better Than

How was the evolution of our unique biological life history related to distinctive human developments in cognition and culture? We suggest that the extended human childhood and adolescence allows a balance between exploration and exploitation, between wider and narrower hypothesis search, and between innovation and imitation in cultural learning. In particular, different developmental periods may be associated with different learning strategies. This relation between biology and culture was probably coevolutionary and bidirectional: life-history changes allowed changes in learning, which in turn both allowed and rewarded extended life histories. In two studies, we test how easily people learn an unusual physical or social causal relation from a pattern of evidence. We track the development of this ability from early childhood through adolescence and adulthood. In the physical domain, preschoolers, counterintuitively, perform better than school-aged children, who in turn perform better than adolescents and adults. As they grow older learners are less flexible: they are less likely to adopt an initially unfamiliar hypothesis that is consistent with new evidence. Instead, learners prefer a familiar hypothesis that is less consistent with the evidence. In the social domain, both preschoolers and adolescents are actually the most flexible learners, adopting an unusual hypothesis more easily than either 6-y-olds or adults. There may be important developmental transitions in flexibility at the entry into middle childhood and in adolescence, which differ across domains.

scholarly journals When in Rome do as the Romans do or not? Cultural Intelligence and Cross-Cultural Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Muhammad Adnan waseem ◽  
◽  
Naveed Hasan
Keyword(s):  
Host Country ◽  
Cultural Adaptation ◽  
Cultural Intelligence ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Chinese Market ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Diverse Cultures ◽  
Theoretical Developments

Cultural intelligence, does it come naturally, or one has to learn it. The answer is a bit of both. Adaptation of a culture in a new environment is pertinent for the newcomers in society. Collaborations among different countries for different purposes (i.e. economic, commercial, social, etc.) also require an understanding of home-country and host-country cultures i.e. China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Just like countries and societies, organizations also enjoy different cultures and the need for adaptation increases when it involves some organizational scenario. The focus of this study is mainly on the pertinence and utilization of cultural adaptation in settings that are novel to the new-comers. The current study has generated a conceptual discussion on cultural intelligence while understanding its role and significance in settings where cross-cultural learning is adopted. A thorough discussion is generated on the standing of cultural learning and the importance of cultural intelligence along with the theoretical developments in the area. A practical example of Australian investment in the Chinese market is shared followed by concluding the study. Findings of this study are significant for organizations as well as countries with workforce serving from various countries having diverse cultures.

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