Learning prosociality: insights from young forager and subsistence farmer children’s food sharing with mothers and others

Morelli, Gilda A.; Henry, Paula Ivey; Spielvogel, Bryn

doi:10.1007/s00265-019-2671-2

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 81 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This excludes the influence of the other individuals who typically care for children in most societies (Crittenden & Marlowe, 2008;Kramer, 2005;Meehan, 2005;Page et al, n.d.). Models of the early development of life history which focus on the cooperative childrearing that most children experience may be more productive in understanding the mechanisms through which early stress affects later life traits, especially in populations which place less emphasis on the nuclear family than WEIRD societies (Amir & McAuliffe, 2020;Clancy & Davis, 2019;Geronimus, 1992;Morelli, Henry, & Spielvogel, 2019;Sear, 2016).…”

Section: Specific Suggestions For Topics To Focus On In Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do human ‘life history strategies’ exist?

Sear

2020

Evolution and Human Behavior

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Interest in incorporating life history research from evolutionary biology into the human sciences has grown rapidly in recent years. Two core features of this research have the potential to prove valuable in strengthening theoretical frameworks in the health and social sciences: the idea that there is a fundamental trade-off between reproduction and health; and that environmental influences are important in determining how life histories develop. However, the literature on human life histories has increasingly travelled away from its origins in biology, and become conceptually diverse. For example, there are differences of opinion between evolutionary researchers about the extent to which behavioural traits associate with life history traits to form 'life history strategies'. Here, I review the different approaches to human life histories from evolutionary anthropologists, developmental psychologists and personality psychologists, in order to assess the evidence for human 'life history strategies'. While there is precedent in biology for the argument that some behavioural traits, notably risk-taking behaviour, may be linked in predictable ways with life history traits, there is little theoretical or empirical justification for including a very wide range of behavioural traits in a 'life history strategy'. Given the potential of life history approaches to provide a powerful theoretical framework for understanding human health and behaviour, I then recommend productive ways forward for the field: 1) greater focus on the life history trade-offs which underlie proposed strategies; 2) greater precision when using the language of life history theory and life history strategies; 3) collecting more empirical data, from a diverse range of populations, on linkages between life history traits, behavioural traits and the environment, including the underlying mechanisms which generate these linkages; and 4) greater integration with the social and health sciences.

show abstract

Section: Specific Suggestions For Topics To Focus On In Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do human ‘life history strategies’ exist?

Sear

2020

Evolution and Human Behavior

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A common reason presented for early cessation of breastfeeding in agricultural societies is the need for parental labour (Keller and Kärtner 2013). For example, among the subsistence farming Makassar of Indonesia, mothers return to working in the fields after 4-6 weeks, relying on extended family for childcare; likewise, among the Bara pastoralists of Madagascar, mothers share care of their children with others and by the child's second year they will be spending most of their time with peers; similar patterns are seen among the Lese of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Morelli, Henry, and Spielvogel 2019). While the reasons are open to argument (e.g.…”

Section: Early Childhood Within a Foraging Societymentioning

confidence: 95%

“…With parentsespecially mothers, as fathers have considerably less direct input into care in agricultural and pastoral groups (Hewlett and Macfarlan 2010)often working out away from the home or indeed village at agricultural tasks, one key task to which older children are put is to look after the infants. For example, among the Gusii of Kenya, young children were left at home in the care of 6-11 year old children for about 4-5 hours a day while they worked in the field (and unlike in huntergatherers, the expectation was of 'care' rather than simply companionship (Morelli, Henry, and Spielvogel 2019)). Likewise, Draper and Cashdan (1988) note that among settled !…”

Section: Early Childhood Within a Foraging Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Environmental Influences on Infant Development and Their Potential Role in Processes of Cultural Transmission and Long-Term Technological Change

Coward

Howard-Jones

2021

Childhood in the Past

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Emerging understanding of the extent to which the childhood environment can influence long-term neural and cognitive development may justify greater attention to its role in prehistory. In this review, we attempt to identify a range of ways in which changes to the rearing environment might impact on cognitive function with the potential to modify processes of cultural transmission. We focus on the types of change to the infant environment that may arise when moving from mobile huntergather to more settled agrarian lifeways. We consider the evidence for such early environmental factors bringing about enduring effects on perceptual tuning, shared attention, behavioural regulation and observational learning, and how these might contribute to differences in processes of cultural transmission across lifeways. We conclude that the potential developmental significance of cultural changes to the infant environment suggests more attention should be paid by archaeologists to lines of evidence related to early childhood environments in prehistory.

show abstract

“…In the fourth and final section, we analyse how human sociality develops through ontogeny, with a special focus on cross-cultural differences in social development. The section opens with a research article by Gilda Morelli, Paula Ivey Henry and Bryn Spielvogel on food sharing in children among rural Efe foragers and Lese farmers in Congo (Morelli et al 2019). The authors examine social and relational experiences associated with the emergence of prosocial behaviour in young children, and discuss how these experiences are culturally organised, ecologically situated and environmentally sensitive.…”

Section: Contributions To the Topical Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An evolutionary perspective on the development of primate sociality

Amici

Widdig

2019

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is now well established that sociality plays a crucial role in primates. For example, among non-human primates, individuals with strong social bonds significantly increase their fecundity, reproductive success, offspring survival and longevity. Also in humans, social integration positively affects psychological stress, health and survival. However, despite the evidence that sociality is a fundamental fitness trait, relatively little is known about how sociality develops. Previous studies are mainly limited to the development of human sociality in Western cultures. Hence, to increase our knowledge about important human developmental milestones, an inter-specific and inter-cultural approach is needed. In particular, to understand the evolutionary roots of human sociality, studies on non-human primates are of large importance. The present Topical Collection is divided into four parts addressing (i) the effect of main bonding partners (mothers, siblings, peers) on social development in non-human primates; (ii) other factors affecting social development, such as sex differences, genetic constraints and personality; (iii) how social cognition and multimodal communication develop through early life in non-human primates and (iv) how human sociality develops through ontogeny, with a special focus on cross-cultural differences. In this paper, we introduce the development of sociality from an evolutionary perspective, briefly summarise each contribution of this Topical Collection and close with possible future directions. We aim to summarise the current state of research on the development of primate sociality, stimulate inter-disciplinary research and provide insight into the outstanding variability in social development across non-human primate species and human cultures. Significance statement This paper opens a Topical Collection on the development of primate sociality. Here, we introduce the topic, summarise contributions to this collection and outline future directions. To understand the evolutionary roots of human sociality, we consider the social development across different non-human primate species and human cultures.

show abstract

Learning prosociality: insights from young forager and subsistence farmer children’s food sharing with mothers and others

Cited by 7 publications

References 81 publications

Do human ‘life history strategies’ exist?

Do human ‘life history strategies’ exist?

Exploring Environmental Influences on Infant Development and Their Potential Role in Processes of Cultural Transmission and Long-Term Technological Change

An evolutionary perspective on the development of primate sociality

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About