Oral Presentation Session - Invited Status Awarded
Invited by: Evolutionary Anthropology Society
Primary Theme: Evolution
Secondary Theme: Science
Hunting and gathering is, evolutionarily, the defining subsistence strategy of our species. Furthermore, many societies are in the process of transitioning from hunting and gathering to market integration, either by choice or by external pressure. Studying how children learn in these societies can, therefore, provide us with key data to test theories about the evolution of human life history, cognition, social behavior, adaptive learning responses, and culture change. However, at present, many assumptions in regard to normative teaching and learning behaviors among children are based only on data from what have been coined Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic (WEIRD) societies. In line with this year’s theme Change in the Anthropological Imagination, we aim to expand the dialogue on, and articulate the ways in which, current anthropological research may support or refute long standing ideas about how children learn, when and what they learn, from whom they learn, and how cultures are maintained and changed across generations.
For this session we will focus on learning behaviors in foraging and transitioning populations during middle childhood and adolescence. Middle childhood (about age 6-11) marks a turning point in development, both hormonally (adrenarche) and socially, as children in all cultures broaden their social sphere and engage in more gender-typical roles. Adolescence (11-19) is a time of great motivational and emotional changes, and marks the transitional stage from childhood to adulthood. We are interested in both how forager children learn and explore during these periods of development, and how cultural and social transitions affect traditional modes of childhood learning, confidence and exploration, as well as subsistence behaviors.
The studies in this panel will address: child-to-child transmission of knowledge; free-range exploration and spatial cognitive development; natural pedagogy; and variation in risk and time preferences.
Karen Kramer
University of Utah
Michelle Scalise Sugiyama
University of Oregon
Alyssa Crittenden
Associate Professor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Alyssa Crittenden
Associate Professor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Sheina lew-Levy
University of Cambridge
Lawrence Sugiyama
University of Oregon
Helen Davis
Postdoc
Harvard University
Helen Davis
Postdoc
Harvard University
Helen Davis
Postdoc
Harvard University
Elizabeth Cashdan
University of Utah