Hunter-gatherer children in the past: an archaeological review

Abstract

Theoretical engagement and methodological innovations geared towards identifying the presence and activities of children in archaeological contexts has increased in pace over the last decade. This paper presents a systematic review of the literature pertaining to the archaeology of hunter-gatherer children. The review summarises methods and findings from 72 archaeological publications in a number of research areas that show material culture relating to childhood, including children’s playthings and tools, learning to flintknap, and their involvement in the making of marks, art and footprints. By drawing on diverse evidence from all inhabited continents, we explore the implications of these data for our understanding of the cultural variability and patterning of hunter-gatherer children in the deep past. The paper closes by discussing potential improvements to archaeological and anthropological methodologies which would progress our understanding of children as active and engaged members of their societies.

Toys as Teachers: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Object Use and Enskillment in Hunter–Gatherer Societies

“…The degree to which artefact size can confidently be used to infer toys in the archaeological record has been a matter of debate (see Crawford, 2009;Park, 1998Park, , 2005. While we have not systematically investigated adults' use of miniatures in ritual or quotidian contexts, the prominence of miniatures in our dataset lends credence to the interpretation of objects at the lower end of a given size distribution as play-objects, such as the scaled-down spear-thrower handles from the Oregon Coast (100-800 CE) discussed by Losey and Hull (2019) and the small organic spear-tips of the European Late Upper Palaeolithic (18-15 ka BP) presented by Langley (2018) and Pfeifer (2015) respectively (see Milks et al, 2021 for further examples). In addition, the cross-cultural prevalence of human and animal figurines aligns well with interpretations of many Palaeolithic (Farbstein et al, 2012;Lbova, 2021) and post-Palaeolithic (see Langley & Litster, 2018;Sommer & Sommer, 2015) figurines as potential play objects, alongside the more common interpretation of prehistoric figurines as religious/ritual objects.…”

Demandas energéticas de actividades de subsistencia en individuos subadultos. Contribuciones a la Ecología del Comportamiento humano

“…Sin embargo, como se adelantó en la introducción, las conductas actuales, y al igual que la biología y la fisiología, son el resultado de la adaptación a diferentes ambientes a lo largo de la evolución (Caro & Borgerhoff Mulder, 1987;Nettle et al, 2013), por lo que no se descarta que tales actividades ya fueran comunes en el pasado, sobre todo atendiendo a las dos actividades de recolección (Aranguren et al, 2018;D'Errico et al, 2012;Hunt, 1994;Revedin, Grimaldi, Florindi, Santaniello, & Aranguren, 2020;Rios-Garaizar et al, 2018;Zeller, 1987) y, sin duda alguna, a la tercera referente a la locomoción (Hatala et al, 2016;Hunt, 1994;Vidal-Cordasco, 2020;Vidal-Cordasco et al, 2021). Además, como destacan Milks y colaboradores (2021), prestando atención al registro etnográfico actual se puede obtener una mejor comprensión del comportamiento humano y la diversidad cultural, lo que puede ampliar los marcos interpretativos para comprender el pasado (Milks, Lew-Levy, Lavi, Friesem, & Reckin, 2021).…”