Teaching in Hunter-Gatherer Infancy

Cultural anthropologists Margaret Mead, David Lancy, and Barbara Rogoff indicate that teaching does not exist or is rare in small-scale cultures. By contrast, recent research by cognitive scientists Gyorgy Gergely and Gergely Csibra indicate that one type of teaching, called natural pedagogy, is a human universal, part of human nature, and not found in the great apes. They hypothesize that this form of teaching emerges in infancy and that it enhances humans' ability to faithfully transmit "opaque" cultural knowledge, such the function of a particular tool. Learners evolved to pay attention to particular cues, such as eye and body movements, and teachers evolved the skills to convey important information to learners, such as pointing, using personal names, looking at or making sounds about important knowledge. Cognitive science research on natural pedagogy is limited because all of their studies have been conducted in laboratories with Western infants. This study uses videotapes of 10 Aka hunter-gatherer 12-14 month-old infants in naturalistic settings to evaluate the natural pedagogy hypothesis. The study shows that natural pedagogy and other forms of teaching exist in hunter-gatherers. The various forms of teaching are placed in ethnographic context (i.e., niche construction that promotes trust, play, autonomy, sharing) and used to explain why social learning in hunter-gatherers occurs early and is relatively rapid.

Room T175