How Hunter-Gatherer Kids Learn Lifelong Skills by Age Six

Summary: Hunter-gatherer children in the Congo Basin learn critical skills like hunting, gathering, and childcare by age six or seven, thanks to a unique social learning environment. Unlike Western societies, where learning is primarily parent- or teacher-centered, these children gain knowledge from parents, peers, extended family, and unrelated adults within their small, egalitarian communities. This broad network fosters a process called cumulative culture, enabling the transmission and innovation of skills across generations.

Key Facts:

• Hunter-gatherer children acquire half of their cultural knowledge from non-relatives.
• Small, intimate living environments promote observation-based learning from diverse sources.
• Egalitarian values and autonomy encourage self-driven, non-coercive skill exploration.

Source: Washington State University

Unlike kids in the United States, hunter-gatherer children in the Congo Basin have often learned how to hunt, identify edible plants and care for babies by the tender age of six or seven.

This rapid learning is facilitated by a unique social environment where cultural knowledge is passed down not just from parents but from the broader community, according to a new Washington State University-led study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research helps explain how many cultural traits have been preserved for thousands of years among hunter-gatherer groups across a wide range of natural environments in Africa.

“We focus on hunter-gatherers because this way of life characterized 99% of human history,” said Barry Hewlett, a professor of anthropology at WSU and lead author of the study.

“Our bodies and minds are adapted to this intimate, small group living, rather than to contemporary urban life. By examining how children in these societies learn, we aim to uncover the mechanisms that have allowed humans to adapt to diverse environments across the globe.”

For the study, Hewlett and colleagues use observational and ethnographic data to examine nine different modes of cultural transmission, meaning from whom and how children learn, in hunter-gatherer societies.

Their analysis reveals that members related to a child’s extended family have likely played a greater role in transmitting knowledge to children than previously thought.

Additionally, the study shows about half of the cultural knowledge hunter-gatherer children and adolescents acquire comes from people they are not related to. This contrasts with previous studies on the topic that have more heavily emphasized the transmission of knowledge from parent to child.

Hewlett explains that the findings are likely due in large part to how children in hunter-gatherer societies learn from a variety of sources, including parents, peers and even unrelated adults in the community. This contrasts with the Western nuclear family model, where learning is often centered around parents or teachers in a formalized school setting.

The broad informal learning network in hunter-gatherer societies is made possible by intimate living conditions. Small camps, usually consisting of 25-35 individuals living in homes a few feet from each other, create an environment where children can observe and interact with a wide range of people.

This allows them to learn essential skills, including caring for infants and cooking as well as hunting and gathering, through a process that is often subtle and nonverbal.

The study also highlights the importance of egalitarianism, respect for individual autonomy and extensive sharing in shaping how cultural knowledge is passed down among hunter gatherers. For example, children learn the importance of equality and autonomy by observing the behavior of adults and children around them.

They are not coerced into learning but are given the freedom to explore and practice skills on their own, fostering a deep understanding of their culture.

“This approach to learning contributes to what we call ‘cumulative culture’—the ability to build on existing knowledge and pass it down through generations,” Hewlett said.

“Unlike in many non-human animals, where social learning is limited to a few skills, humans have developed complex mental and social structures that allow for the transmission of thousands of cultural traits. This has enabled us to innovate and adapt to various environments, from dense forests to arid deserts.”

Moving forward, Hewlett hopes that this research offers a more nuanced understanding of the nature of social learning in humans and how cultures in general are conserved and change over time.

His coauthors on the study are Adam Boyette, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Sheina Lew-Levy, Durham University Department of Anthropology, Sandrine Gallois, Autonomous University of Barcelona Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, and Samuel Dira, Hawassa University Department of Anthropology.

About this neurodevelopment and learning research news

Author: Will Ferguson
Source: Washington State University
Contact: Will Ferguson – Washington State University
Image: The image is credited to WSU

Original Research: Open access.
“Cultural transmission among hunter-gatherers” by Barry Hewlett et al. PNAS

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Abstract

Cultural transmission among hunter-gatherers

We examine from whom children learn in mobile hunter-gatherers, a way of life that characterized much of human history.

Recent studies on the modes of transmission in hunter-gatherers are reviewed before presenting an analysis of five modes of transmission described by Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman [L. L. Cavalli-Sforza, M. W. Feldman, Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach (1981)] but not previously evaluated in hunter-gatherer research.

We also present two modes of group transmission, conformist transmission, and concerted transmission, seldom mentioned in hunter-gatherer social learning research, and propose a unique mode of group transmission called cumulative transmission.

The analysis of the additional modes of transmission indicated that cultural evolutionary signatures of vertical transmission, such as the conservation of cultural traits, have been underestimated because previous studies have seldom considered remote generations or distinguished intrafamilial from extrafamilial horizontal and oblique transmission.

However, field data also indicate that hunter-gatherer children interacted with and learned from many nongenetically related individuals; about half of children’s and adolescents’ horizontal and oblique social learning came from nongenetically related individuals.

Intimate living conditions of hunter-gatherers provide opportunities for group transmission, and ethnographic evidence presented demonstrates that at least three types of group transmission exist.

All three forms of group transmission theoretically contribute to the conservation of culture, homogeneity of intracultural diversity, and high intercultural diversity.

Analysis of additional modes of oblique and horizontal transmission and discussion of previous and unique modes of group transmission demonstrate the various mechanisms by which hunter-gatherer children learn and how cultures are conserved and contribute to cumulative culture.