Cultural learning is a key feature of culture and our humanity. Although studies exist on children’s learning in subsistence farmers and hunter-gatherers, comparable cross-cultural studies have not been conducted for pastoralists. The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe patterns of cultural learning in pastoralists and to compare these patterns to what we know about cultural learning in hunter-gatherers. The study utilizes 13 cultures coded as pastoralists in eHRAF World Cultures. The search located 198 texts in ethnographies with precise information on how pastoral children learn. Overall, we found that children acquired most pastoral skills and knowledge in early childhood, children were most likely to learn from parents (vertical transmission) and non-parental adults (oblique transmission), a relationship between age and specific modes of transmission did not exist, various forms of teaching were the most frequently mentioned processes of learning, and the frequency of teaching did not vary by the child’s age. When hunter-gatherer’s and pastoralist’s patterns of cultural learning were compared several similarities emerged: most accounts of learning occurred in early childhood, children were most likely to learn from parents and non-parental adults, and various forms of teaching were the most frequently mentioned processes of learning. Several differences in cultural learning between the two groups were identified: pastoralist ethnographers were less likely than hunter-gatherer ethnographers to mention learning from peers and more likely to mention learning via local enhancement and stimulus enhancement.
AbbottS. (1992). Holding on and pushing away: Comparative perspectives on an Eastern Kentucky child-rearing practice. Ethos, 20(1), 33–65.https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.1992.20.1.02a00020
BenetS. (1974). Abkhasians: The long-living people of the caucasus. Holt, Rinehart and Winston
4.
BockJ. (2010). An evolutionary perspective on learning in social, cultural, and ecological context. The Anthropology of Learning in Childhood, 11–34.
5.
BolinderG. (1957). Indians on horseback. D. Dobson
6.
BoltonC.BoltonR.GrossL.KoelA.MichelsonC.MunroeR. L.MunroeR. H. (1976). Pastoralism and personality: An Andean replication. Ethos, 4(4), 463–481.https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.1976.4.4.02a00040
7.
BoydR.RichersonP. J. (1988). Culture and the evolutionary process. University of Chicago Press
8.
BoydR.RichersonP. J. (2005). The origin and evolution of cultures. Oxford University Press
9.
BoydR.RichersonP. J.HenrichJ. (2011). The cultural niche: Why social learning is essential for human adaptation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(2), 10918–10925. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1100290108
CasimirM. J. (2010). Growing up in a pastoral society: Socialization among pashtu nomads in western Afghanistan. Nomadic Peoples, 16(2), 137–139. https://doi.org/10.3167/np.2012.160209
12.
Cavalli-SforzaL. L.FeldmanM. W. (1981). Cultural transmission and evolution: A quantitative approach. Princeton University Press
CsibraG.GergelyG. (2011). Natural pedagogy as evolutionary adaptation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366(1567), 1149–1157.https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0319
15.
DeffnerD.McElreathR. (2022). When does selection favor learning from the old? Social learning in age-structured populations. PloS One, 17(4), e0267204.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267204
16.
DescolaP.transLloydJ. (2013). Beyond nature and culture. University of Chicago Press
17.
EdgertonR. B. (1971). The individual in cultural adaptation: A study of four East african peoples. University of California Press
18.
GarbP. (1984). From childhood to centenarian. Progress Publishers
19.
GarfieldZ. H.GarfieldM. J.HewlettB. S. (2016). A cross-cultural analysis of hunter-gatherer social learning. In Social learning and innovation in contemporary hunter-gatherers (pp. 19–34). Springer
20.
GaskinsS.ParadiseR. (2010). Learning through observation in daily life. In The Anthropology of Learning in Childhood, AltaMira Press, 85–110.
21.
GlowackiL.MollemanL. (2017). Subsistence styles shape human social learning strategies. Nature Human Behaviour, 1(5), 1–5.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0098
22.
GulliverP. H. (1951) A preliminary survey of the Turkana: a report compiled for the Government of Kenya (Vol. 26). University of Cape Town
HarknessS.SuperC. M. (2006). Themes and variations: Parental ethno-theories in Western cultures. In RubinK. (Ed.), Parenting Beliefs, Behaviors, and Parent-Child Relations: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, (pp. 61–79) Psychology Press
25.
HarknessS.SuperC. M.TijenN. V. (2000). Individualism and the “western mind”reconsidered: American and Dutch parents’ ethnotheories of the child. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2000(87), 23–39.https://doi.org/10.1002/cd.23220008704
26.
HarrisJ. R. (1995). Where is the child’s environment? A group socialization theory of development. Psychological Review, 102(3), 458–489.https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.102.3.458
27.
HenrichJ. (2020). The WEIRDest people in the world: How the West became psychologically peculiar and particularly prosperous.
HenrichJ.McElreathR. (2003). The evolution of cultural evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 12(3), 123–135. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0051
30.
HewlettB. S. (2016). Social learning and innovation in hunter-gatherers. In Social learning and innovation in contemporary hunter-gatherers (pp. 1–15). Springer
31.
HewlettB. S.Cavalli SforzaL. L. (1986). Cultural transmission among Aka pygmies. American Anthropologist, 88(4), 922–934. https://www.jstor.org/stable/679081
32.
HewlettB. S.FoutsH. N.BoyetteA. H.HewlettB. L. (2011). Social learning among congo basin hunter–gatherers. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences, 366(1567), 1168–1178. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0373
33.
HewlettB. S.HudsonJ.BoyetteA. H.FoutsH. N. (2019). Intimate living: Sharing space among Aka and other hunter-gatherers. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
34.
HewlettB. S.RouletteC. J. (2016). Teaching in hunter-gatherer infancy. Royal Society Open Science, 3(1), 150403.https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150403
35.
HoppittW.LalandK. N. (2013). Social learning: An introduction to mechanisms, methods, and models. Princeton University Press
36.
IngoldT. (1976). The skolt lapps today. CUP Archive
37.
ItkonenT. I.GuematiO.Perez-RomanE. (1984). The lapps in Finland up to 1945 (Vol. 2). Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö
38.
KashimaY.GelfandM. J. (2012). A history of culture in psychology. In KruglanskiA. W.StroebeW. (Eds.), Handbook of the history of social psychology (pp. 499–520). Psychology Press
39.
KlineM. A. (2015). How to learn about teaching: An evolutionary framework for the study of teaching behavior in humans and other animals. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 38, e31. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X14000090.
40.
KlineM. A.BoydR.HenrichJ. (2013). Teaching and the life history of cultural transmission in Fijian villages. Human Nature, 24(4), 351–374.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-013-9180-1
41.
KonnerM (2010). The evolution of childhood: Relationships, emotion, mind. Harvard University Press
42.
KurylevV. P. (2011). Culture summary. Kazakh
43.
LancyD. F. (1996). Playing on the mother-ground: Cultural routines for children's development. Guilford Press
44.
LancyD. F.BockJ.GaskinsS. (Eds.), (2010). The anthropology of learning in childhood. Rowman Altamira
45.
LancyD. F.GroveM. A. (2010). The role of adults in children’s learning. (p. 145), The Anthropology of Learning in Childhood
46.
LegesseA. (1973). Gada: Three approaches to the study of african society. The Free Press
47.
LeVineR. A.DixonS.LeVineS.RichmanA.LeidermanP. H.KeeferC. H.BrazeltonT. B. (1994). Child care and culture: Lessons from Africa. Cambridge university press
48.
LevyR. I. (1973). Tahitians: Mind and experience in the society islands. University of Chicago Press
49.
Lew-LevyS.KisslerS. M.BoyetteA. H.CrittendenA. N.MabullaI. A.HewlettB. S. (2020). Who teaches children to forage? Exploring the primacy of child-to-child teaching among hadza and BaYaka hunter-gatherers of Tanzania and Congo. Evolution and Human Behavior, 41(1), 12–22.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2019.07.003
50.
Lew-LevyS.RingenE. J.CrittendenA. N.MabullaI. A.BroeschT.KlineM. A. (2021). The life history of learning subsistence skills among Hadza and BaYaka foragers from Tanzania and the Republic of Congo. Human Nature, 32(1), 16–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-021-09386-9
51.
MacDonaldK. (2010). Learning to Hunt. The anthropology of learning in childhood (p. 371). Rowman & Littlefield
52.
MalinowskiB. (1929). The sexual life of savages in north-western melanesia. Routledge
53.
MarloweF. (2010) The Hadza: hunter-gatherers of Tanzania (Vol. 3). Univ of California Press
54.
McelreathR. (2004). Social learning and the maintenance of cultural variation: An evolutionary model and data from East Africa. American Anthropologist, 106(2), 308–321. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3566966
55.
MeadM. (1930). Growing up in New Guinea. Morrow
56.
MesoudiAlex (2011). An experimental comparison of human social learning strategies: payoff-biased social learning is adaptive but underused. Evolution and Human Behavior, 32(5), 334-342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.12.001.
57.
MooreL. C. (2010). Learning in schools. In The anthropology of learning in childhood (pp. 207–232). Rowman & Littlefield
58.
MorelliG. A.RogoffB.OppenheimD.GoldsmithD. (1992). Cultural variation in infants' sleeping arrangements: Questions of independence. Developmental Psychology, 28(4), 604–613.https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.4.604
59.
MunroeR. L.GauvainM. (2010). The cross-cultural study of children’s learning and socialization: A short history. In LancyD. F.BockJ.GaskinsS. (Eds.), The anthropology of learning in childhood (pp. 35–63). AltaMira Press
60.
MusilA. (1928). The manners and customs of the rwala bedouins. In Oriental Explorations and studies
61.
NewR. S.RichmanA. L. (1996). Maternal beliefs and infant care practices in Italy and the United States. Harkness and Supe, (eds). Parents’ Cultural Belief Systems: Their Origins, Expressions, and Consequences, Guilford Press, 385–404.
PeltoP. J. (1960). Individualism in skolt lapp society. University of California
64.
QuinlanM. B.QuinlanR. J.CouncilS. K.RouletteJ. W. (2016). Children’s acquisition of ethnobotanical knowledge in a caribbean horticultural village. Journal of Ethnobiology, 36(2), 433–456. https://doi.org/10.2993/0278-0771-36.2.433
65.
RaswanC. R. (1947). Black tents of arabia: My life among the bedouins. Creative Age
66.
Reyes-GarcíaV.GuèzeM.Díaz-ReviriegoI.DudaR.Fernández-LlamazaresÁ.GalloisS.PyhäläA. (2016). The adaptive nature of culture: A cross-cultural analysis of the returns of local environmental knowledge in three indigenous societies. Current Anthropology, 57(6), 761–784. https://doi.org/10.1086/689307
67.
RichersonP. J.BoydR. (2008). Not by genes alone: How culture transformed human evolution. University of Chicago Press
68.
RogoffB. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. Oxford university Press
RogoffB.MistryJ.GöncüA.MosierC.ChavajayP.HeathS. B.GoncuA. (1993). Guided participation in cultural activity by toddlers and caregivers. In Guided participation in cultural activity by toddlers and caregivers (Vol. 58, pp. i–179). Monographs of the Society for Research in Child development
72.
SalaliG. D.ChaudharyN.BouerJ.ThompsonJ.ViniciusL.MiglianoA. B. (2019). Development of social learning and play in BaYaka hunter-gatherers of Congo. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 11080–11110.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47515-8
73.
SchlegelA.BarryH. (1991). Adolescence: An anthropological inquiry. Free Press
74.
ShoreB. (1996). Culture in mind: Cognition, culture and the problem of meaning. Oxford University Press
75.
SpencerP. (1988). The Maasai of Matapato. A study of rituals of rebellion. Routledge
76.
SpindlerG. (Ed.), (1974). Education and cultural process: Toward an anthropology of education. Holt Rinehart & Winston
77.
StieglitzJ.GurvenM.KaplanH.HooperP. L. (2013). Household task delegation among high-fertility forager-horticulturalists of lowland Bolivia. Current Anthropology, 54(2), 232–241.https://doi.org/10.1086/669708
78.
SuperC. M.HarknessS.Van TijenN.Van Der VlugtE.FintelmanM.DijkstraJ. (1996). The three R’s of Dutch childrearing and the socialization of infant arousal. In Parents’ cultural belief systems: Their origins, expressions, and consequences (pp. 447–466). Guilford Press
79.
TerashimaH.HewlettB. S. (2016). Social learning and innovation in contemporary hunter-gatherers. Springer
80.
TianX. (2017). Ethnobotanical knowledge acquisition during daily chores: The firewood collection of pastoral Maasai girls in southern Kenya. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 13(1), 2–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13002-016-0131-x
81.
TianX. (2019). The role of social norms and interactions in the process of learning-by-doing: From the ethnography of daily work, play, and school participation of children in contemporary pastoralist Maasai society in southern Kenya. African Study Monographs, 40(2–3), 77–92
82.
TomaselloM.KrugerA. C.RatnerH. H. (1993). Cultural learning. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16(3), 495–511
83.
WatsonL. C. (1968) Guajiro personality and urbanization (Vol. 10). Latin American Center, University of California
WhitingB. B.WhitingJ. W. (1975). Children of six cultures: A psycho-cultural analysis. Harvard U Press
86.
ZargerR. K. (2010). Learning the environment. (pp. 341–370) The Anthropology of Learning in Childhood
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
