Objectives: To determine the effects of age and sex on physical activity and time budgets of Hadza children and juveniles, 5–14 years old, including both in-camp and out-of-camp activities. Methods: Behavioral data were derived from ~15,000 hourly in-camp scan observations of 76 individuals and 13 out-of-camp focal follows on 9 individuals. The data were used to estimate energy expended and percentage of time engaged in a variety of routine activities, including food collection, childcare, making and repairing tools, and household maintenance. Results: Our results suggest that 1) older children spend more time in economic activities; 2) females spend more time engaged in work-related and economic activities in camp, whereas males spend more time engaged in economic activities out of camp; and 3) foraging by both sexes tends to net caloric gains despite being energetically costly. Conclusions: These results show that, among the Hadza, a sexual division of labor begins to emerge in middle childhood and is well in place by adolescence. Furthermore, foraging tends to provide net caloric gains, suggesting that children are capable of reducing at least some of the energetic burden they place upon their parents or alloparents. The findings are relevant to our understanding of the ways in which young foragers allocate their time, the development of sex-specific behavior patterns, and the capacity of children’s work efforts to offset the cost of their own care in a cooperative breeding environment.

No abstract

Introduction: We investigated the preliminary effects of dietary changes on the anthropometric measurements of child and adolescent Hadza foragers. Methods: We conducted a cross‐sectional study comparing height and weight of participants (aged 0‐17 years) at two time points, 2005 (n = 195) and 2017 (n = 52), from two locations: semi‐nomadic “bush camps” and sedentary “village camps”. World Health Organization (WHO) calculators were used to generate standardized z‐scores for weight‐for‐height (WHZ), weight‐for‐age (WAZ), height‐for‐age (HAZ), and BMI‐for‐age (BMIFAZ). Cross tabulations were constructed for each measurement variable as a function of z‐score categories and the variables year, location, and sex. Results: Residency in a village, and associated mixed‐subsistence diet, was associated with favorable growth, including greater WAZ (P < .001), HAZ (P < .001), and BMIFAZ (P = .004), but not WHZ (P = .717). Regardless of residency location, participants showed an improved WAZ (P = .021) and HAZ (P < .001) in the 2017 study year. We found no sex differences. Discussion and Conclusion: These preliminary findings suggest that a mixed‐subsistence diet may confer advantages over an exclusive wild food diet, a trend also reported among other transitioning foragers.

No abstract

No abstract