Hunter-gatherer children at school: A view from the Global South

Ninkova, Velina; Hays, Jennifer; Lavi, Noa; Ali, Aishah; Macedo, Silvia Lopes da Silva; Davis, Helen E.; Lew‐Levy, Sheina

doi:10.31234/osf.io/zxq98

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Choosing to remain close to market towns has also been linked to decreases in traditional plant knowledge and preferences for traditional medicine [ 99 ], increases in wealth inequalities and a greater future-oriented time preference [ 100 ]. Still, while schooling may limit BaYaka mobility as it relates to forest activities, it may also place BaYaka in contact with new ideas and people [ 101 ]. Roads may increase BaYaka mobility, especially as it relates to labour opportunities.…”

Section: Social Links Diverse Opportunities: a View From Contemporary...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Social ties in the Congo Basin: insights into tropical forest adaptation from BaYaka and their neighbours

Boyette

Lew‐Levy

Jang

et al. 2022

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Investigating past and present human adaptation to the Congo Basin tropical forest can shed light on how climate and ecosystem variability have shaped human evolution. Here, we first review and synthesize genetic, palaeoclimatological, linguistic and historical data on the peopling of the Congo Basin. While forest fragmentation led to the increased genetic and geographical divergence of forest foragers, these groups maintained long-distance connectivity. The eventual expansion of Bantu speakers into the Congo Basin provided new opportunities for forging inter-group links, as evidenced by linguistic shifts and historical accounts. Building from our ethnographic work in the northern Republic of the Congo, we show how these inter-group links between forest forager communities as well as trade relationships with neighbouring farmers facilitate adaptation to ecoregions through knowledge exchange. While researchers tend to emphasize forager–farmer interactions that began in the Iron Age, we argue that foragers' cultivation of relational wealth with groups across the region played a major role in the initial occupation of the Congo Basin and, consequently, in cultural evolution among the ancestors of contemporary peoples. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Tropical forests in the deep human past’.

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Section: Social Links Diverse Opportunities: a View From Contemporary...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Social ties in the Congo Basin: insights into tropical forest adaptation from BaYaka and their neighbours

Boyette

Lew‐Levy

Jang

et al. 2022

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Linking Disparate Strands: A Critical Review of the Relationship Between Creativity and Education

Rawlings,

Cutting

2024

Educ Psychol Rev

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Whether schools help or hinder creativity is a topic of vibrant, international debate. Some contend that the focus on structure, rote learning and standardised assessments associated with formal education stifles children’s creativity. Others argue that creativity, much like numeracy or literacy, is a skill that can be taught, and educational settings provide optimal contexts for children to learn creative skills. With creativity increasingly recognised as a critical skill of the twenty-first century and formal education reaching more children across the globe, understanding the impact of schools on its development is critical. We suggest that much of the discourse on this topic has a narrow focus, precluding a global perspective. Here, we take a step back to integrate important but disparately presented research strands on education and creativity, to inform this debate. We first synthesize what we know about creativity and education, before presenting work on different areas—either directly or indirectly assessing creativity in educational contexts—including the relationship between creativity and academic achievement, classroom infrastructure and experiences, developmental slumps, teachers’ perspectives on creative children and research on culturally and educationally diverse populations. Reviewing research from these approaches shows that the relationship is nuanced and requires careful interpretation—while some research showcases the positive impact schooling can have on children’s creative development, other work, including from culturally and educationally diverse populations, shows how school experiences could be detrimental in this regard. We finish by summarising and integrating these research strands before making suggestions for future research.

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Socioecology shapes child and adolescent time allocation in twelve hunter-gatherer and mixed-subsistence forager societies

Lew‐Levy

Reckin

Kissler

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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A key issue distinguishing prominent evolutionary models of human life history is whether prolonged childhood evolved to facilitate learning in a skill- and strength-intensive foraging niche requiring high levels of cooperation. Considering the diversity of environments humans inhabit, children’s activities should also reflect local social and ecological opportunities and constraints. To better understand our species’ developmental plasticity, the present paper compiled a time allocation dataset for children and adolescents from twelve hunter-gatherer and mixed-subsistence forager societies (n = 690; 3–18 years; 52% girls). We investigated how environmental factors, local ecological risk, and men and women’s relative energetic contributions were associated with cross-cultural variation in child and adolescent time allocation to childcare, food production, domestic work, and play. Annual precipitation, annual mean temperature, and net primary productivity were not strongly associated with child and adolescent activity budgets. Increased risk of encounters with dangerous animals and dehydration negatively predicted time allocation to childcare and domestic work, but not food production. Gender differences in child and adolescent activity budgets were stronger in societies where men made greater direct contributions to food production than women. We interpret these findings as suggesting that children and their caregivers adjust their activities to facilitate the early acquisition of knowledge which helps children safely cooperate with adults in a range of social and ecological environments. These findings compel us to consider how childhood may have also evolved to facilitate flexible participation in productive activities in early life.

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Hunter-gatherer children at school: A view from the Global South

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Social ties in the Congo Basin: insights into tropical forest adaptation from BaYaka and their neighbours

Social ties in the Congo Basin: insights into tropical forest adaptation from BaYaka and their neighbours

Linking Disparate Strands: A Critical Review of the Relationship Between Creativity and Education

Socioecology shapes child and adolescent time allocation in twelve hunter-gatherer and mixed-subsistence forager societies

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