Overview
- Is the first and only book on social learning in hunter–gatherers
- Employs multidisciplinary (biological and cultural anthropology, developmental psychology, education) theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding social learning and innovation in hunter–gatherers
- Emphasizes field-based studies of hunter–gatherers
- Integrates and utilizes field-based ethnography to address theoretical issues in archaeology and prehistory
Part of the book series: Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans Series (RNMH)
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Table of contents (27 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Evolutionary Approaches to Social Learning: Modes and Processes of Social Learning
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Front Matter
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Situated Learning and Participatory Approaches to Social Learning
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Front Matter
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Play, Social Learning, and Innovation
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Front Matter
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Keywords
About this book
This is the first book to examine social learning and innovation in hunter–gatherers from around the world. More is known about social learning in chimpanzees and nonhuman primates than is known about social learning in hunter–gatherers, a way of life that characterized most of human history. The book describes diverse patterns of learning and teaching behaviors in contemporary hunter–gatherers from the perspectives of cultural anthropology, ecological anthropology, biological anthropology, and developmental psychology. The book addresses several theoretical issues including the learning hypothesis which suggests that the fate of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals in the last glacial period might have been due to the differences in learning ability. It has been unequivocally claimed that social learning is intrinsically important for human beings; however, the characteristics of human learning remain under a dense fog despite innumerable studies with children from urban–industrialcultures. Controversy continues on problems such as: do hunter–gatherers teach? If so, what types of teaching occur, who does it, how often, under what contexts, and so on. The book explores the most basic and intrinsic aspects of social learning as well as the foundation of innovative activities in everyday activities of contemporary hunter–gatherer people across the earth. The book examines how hunter-gatherer core values, such as gender and age egalitarianism and extensive sharing of food and childcare are transmitted and acquired by children. Chapters are grouped into five sections: 1) theoretical perspectives of learning in hunter–gatherers, 2) modes and processes of social learning in hunter–gatherers, 3) innovation and cumulative culture, 4) play and other cultural contexts of social learning and innovation, 5) biological contexts of learning and innovation. Ideas and concepts based on the data gathered through an intensive fieldwork by the authors will give much insight into the mechanisms and meanings of learning and education in modern humans.
Editors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Social Learning and Innovation in Contemporary Hunter-Gatherers
Book Subtitle: Evolutionary and Ethnographic Perspectives
Editors: Hideaki Terashima, Barry S. Hewlett
Series Title: Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans Series
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55997-9
Publisher: Springer Tokyo
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Japan 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-4-431-55995-5Published: 02 November 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-4-431-56749-3Published: 29 June 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-4-431-55997-9Published: 22 October 2016
Series ISSN: 2365-063X
Series E-ISSN: 2365-0648
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVIII, 318
Number of Illustrations: 22 b/w illustrations, 57 illustrations in colour
Topics: Anthropology, Cognitive Psychology, Archaeology