SOCIAL LEARNING IN CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE AMONG THE KOYGU TRANSITIONAL HUNTER-GATHERERS AND NYANGATOM PASTORALISTS IN SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

Temechegn Gutu Bira

The dissertation examines social learning during childhood and adolescence among the Koygu hunter-gatherers and the Nyangatom pastoralists of southern Ethiopia, two culturally distinct neighboring groups, and among children in Intermarriage (Koygu-Nyangatom) families. The project investigates from whom and how children learn and how culturally constructed niches, the nature of skills or knowledge, and Intermarriage contexts shape social learning. The study is based upon a cross-cultural literature review of pastoralists (HRAF) and 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in southern Ethiopia. Field methods included participant observation, household demographic surveys, open-ended interviews, semi-structured interviews with adults and adolescents from all three groups on a variety of social learning topics, and behavioral observations of 30 children and adolescents in all three groups. This is one of a few studies to use multiple methods to evaluate social learning in small-scale cultures. Major contributions include the following. Concerted cultural transmission, a form of group learning, was common across all groups and often involved only children. It is the first systematic study of concerted transmission and has implications for understanding group selection in humans. Second, the relatively unique mixed-methods approach helped to explain why the existing literature on social learning often has mixed results. The HRAF and interview data emphasized learning from parents and other adults, whereas the behavioral observations found that learning from peers was particularly important during middle childhood. Different contexts, learning over a lifetime (interview questions) and learning now (observations), generate different results. Third, contrary to sociocultural anthropologists’ characterization that teaching does not exist in small-scale cultures, the cross-cultural survey and observational data demonstrated that teaching was a common process of learning in all groups. However, it was regularly but not frequently mentioned in the interview data. Fourth, foundational schema impacted social learning. Koygu egalitarianism provided children autonomy in from whom and how they acquired culture, whereas Nyangatom hierarchy contributed to more adult-to-child transmission and learning. Finally, consistent with existing cultural evolutionary theory, complex cultural skills were more likely to be taught rather than acquired through observation and imitation. Overall, the dissertation is a major contribution to social learning among children in small-scale cultures.

SOCIAL LEARNING IN CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE AMONG THE KOYGU TRANSITIONAL HUNTER-GATHERERS AND NYANGATOM PASTORALISTS IN SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

Files and links (1)

Abstract

Metrics

Details