Abstract
A debate exists as to whether teaching is part of human nature and central to understanding culture or whether it is a recent invention of Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democratic cultures. Some social–cultural anthropologists and cultural psychologists indicate teaching is rare in small-scale cultures while cognitive psychologists and evolutionary biologists indicate it is universal and key to understanding human culture. This study addresses the following questions: Does teaching of infants exist in hunter–gatherers? If teaching occurs in infancy, what skills or knowledge is transmitted by this process, how often does it occur and who is teaching? The study focuses on late infancy because cognitive psychologists indicate that one form of teaching, called natural pedagogy, emerges at this age. Videotapes of Aka hunter–gatherer infants were used to evaluate whether or not teaching exists among Aka hunter–gatherers of central Africa. The study finds evidence of multiple forms of teaching, including natural pedagogy, that are used to enhance learning of a variety of skills and knowledge.
Highlights
Social–cultural anthropologists, cognitive psychologists, educators and evolutionary biologists are interested in teaching, but the different disciplines have distinct histories and research traditions that have influenced the characterizations and representations of teaching in humans
Anthropologists conducting research in small-scale cultures around the world often indicate it is rare or nonexistent, cognitive psychologists and some educators indicate it is unique to humans and part of human nature, while evolutionary biologists suggest it exists in several non-human animal species and that it does not require complex cognitive abilities
We focus on infancy in particular to determine whether or not the type of teaching described by Gergely & Csibra [24], i.e. natural pedagogy, occurs in hunter–gatherer infancy
Summary
Social–cultural anthropologists, cognitive psychologists, educators and evolutionary biologists are interested in teaching, but the different disciplines have distinct histories and research traditions that have influenced the characterizations and representations of teaching in humans (see [1,2] for critiques). Anthropologists conducting research in small-scale cultures around the world often indicate it is rare or nonexistent, cognitive psychologists and some educators indicate it is unique to humans and part of human nature, while evolutionary biologists suggest it exists in several non-human animal species and that it does not require complex cognitive abilities.
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