Aka Hunter-gatherers Research Articles

The impact of gossip, reputation, and context on resource transfers among Aka hunter-gatherers, Ngandu horticulturalists, and MTurkers

The impact of gossip, reputation, and context on resource transfers among Aka hunter-gatherers, Ngandu horticulturalists, and MTurkers

Unintended impacts from forest certification: Evidence from indigenous Aka households in Congo

Does Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of “responsible” commercial forestry change nutrition, health and wealth for indigenous peoples, like the Aka of the Congo Basin? Using hand-collected data from the boundary of a certified and an uncertified forest in the Republic of Congo five years after certification, I compare nutrition, health, and wealth using questions that are locally salient and survey timing designed to reach semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers. Though I only observe outcomes after certification, using a spatial regression discontinuity design I find suggestive evidence that activities to satisfy forest certification may cause increased food insecurity and illness frequency for Aka households. I find no evidence of increased material wealth; instead, the poorest 15th percentile is poorer for Aka households. Non-Aka households are unaffected. Activities to satisfy FSC include a road connection, likely requested by non-Aka households, which in combination with hunting restrictions may decrease food security for Aka hunter-gatherers.

Teaching in hunter-gatherer infancy.

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.

Cultural variation in the use of overimitation by the Aka and Ngandu of the Congo Basin.

Studies in Western cultures have observed that both children and adults tend to overimitate, copying causally irrelevant actions in the presence of clear causal information. Investigation of this feature in non-Western groups has found little difference cross-culturally in the frequency or manner with which individuals overimitate. However, each of the non-Western populations studied thus far has a history of close interaction with Western cultures, such that they are now far removed from life in a hunter-gatherer or other small-scale culture. To investigate overimitation in a context of limited Western cultural influences, we conducted a study with the Aka hunter-gatherers and neighboring Ngandu horticulturalists of the Congo Basin rainforest in the southern Central African Republic. Aka children, Ngandu children, and Aka adults were presented with a reward retrieval task similar to those performed in previous studies, involving a demonstrated sequence of causally relevant and irrelevant actions. Aka children were found not to overimitate as expected, instead displaying one of the lowest rates of overimitation seen under similar conditions. Aka children copied fewer irrelevant actions than Aka adults, used a lower proportion of irrelevant actions than Ngandu children and Aka adults, and had less copying fidelity than Aka adults. Measures from Ngandu children were intermediate between the two Aka groups. Of the participants that succeeded in retrieving the reward, 60% of Aka children used emulation rather than imitation, compared to 15% of Ngandu children, 11% of Aka adults, and 0% of Western children of similar age. From these results, we conclude that cross-cultural variation exists in the use of overimitation during childhood. Further study is needed under a more diverse representation of cultural and socioeconomic groups in order to investigate the cognitive underpinnings of overimitation and its possible influences on social learning and the biological and cultural evolution of our species.

Assessing the Impacts of Conservation and Commercial Forestry on Livelihoods in Northern Republic of Congo

Researchers often attempt to understand the social impacts of conservation interventions in isolation of broader socioeconomic, political and institutional change. However it is important to understand the variety of forces structuring livelihood impacts, and to identify how different social groups respond and adapt to changes. This article uses a case study from northern Republic of Congo, where rural livelihoods are shaped by a combination of conservation and commercial forestry activities, to understand the differential livelihood impacts of these activities on the two principal social groups, the Aka hunter-gatherers and Kaka and Bondongo farmer-fishers. The study results indicate that livelihood change is most striking in conservation-forestry villages compared to control villages, and this change is most evident among the Aka. Although commercial forestry is the principal driver of livelihood change, the enforcement of conservation regulations reduces households' access to natural capital and alters social relations. In this context the impacts of conservation were exacerbated due to the dramatic transformation of the livelihood space into which people were either economically displaced or chose to move to. Conservation interventions in similar contexts should involve people in the project design and initiate context-specific livelihood assessment and monitoring prior to and during the intervention.

Interpersonal Aggression among Aka Hunter-Gatherers of the Central African Republic

Sex differences in physical and indirect aggression have been found in many societies but, to our knowledge, have not been studied in a population of hunter-gatherers. Among Aka foragers of the Central African Republic we tested whether males physically aggressed more than females, and whether females indirectly aggressed more than males, as has been seen in other societies. We also tested predictions of an evolutionary theory of physical strength, anger, and physical aggression. We found a large male bias in physical aggression. Controlling for anger, we found an adult female bias in indirect aggression. Physical strength predicted anger, which predicted hitting, although results were sensitive to the inclusion or exclusion of traditional healers, who were physically and emotionally distinct from other Aka. With some important caveats, our results generally support the predicted sex differences in physical aggression and indirect aggression, and the predicted relationships among anger, strength, and aggression.

Internal Working Models, Trust, and Sharing among Foragers

Internal Working Models, Trust, and Sharing among Foragers

狩猟採集民アカにおける食物分配と居住集団

狩猟採集民アカにおける食物分配と居住集団

Seasonal Changes in the Subsistence Activities and Food Intake of the Aka Hunter-Gatherers in Northeastern Congo

In central Africa. a close relationship exists between the cultivators and the hunter-gatherers (Pygmies), who depend on agricultural foods exchanged for forest pro­ ducts or labor. In northeastern Congo, the Aka hunter-gatherers lead a dual mode of life in the forest and the village. They mainly depend on wild animal and plant food in the forest, whereas on agricultural food in the illage. Their subsistence activities are influenced by the fluctuation in the availability of wild food resources that does not fall into a simple annual cycle. but fluctuates from year to year. The subsistence acthities of the Aka are more com­ plex than the other hunter-gatherers, and dependent on the ecology of the tropical rain forest and the local economy in northeastern Congo.

The Exchange of Forest Products (Irvingia nuts) between the Aka Hunter-gatherers and the Cultivators in Northeastern Congo.

The Aka hunter-gatherers in northeastern Congo exchange various forest products with neighboring cultivators. While meat comprises an important exchange item in other forest areas of central Africa, it is rarely exchanged in the northeastern Congo region because of the spread of guns among the cultivators. Irvingia nuts comprise one of the most important exchange items, instead. Irvingia nuts are exchanged either in the form of nuts or the processed cake. The goods exchanged for the nuts are mainly agricultural products, whereas that for processed cake are manufactured goods such as pots and clothes. The nuts circulate within the village, and processed cake is traded to the area outside the village sphere as an important element of local and regional economies. The implications of these differences for the economic life of both the Aka and the cultivator are discussed.

コンゴ北東部の狩猟採集民アカにおける摂食回避

コンゴ北東部の狩猟採集民アカにおける摂食回避