Hunter-gatherer Childhoods: Evolutionary, Developmental, And Cultural Perspectives (evolutionary Foundations Of Human Behavior Series)

In the vast anthropological literature devoted to hunter-gatherer societies, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the place of hunter-gatherer children. Children often represent 40 percent of hunter-gatherer populations, thus nearly half the population is omitted from most hunter-gatherer ethnographies and research. This volume is designed to bridge the gap in our understanding of the daily lives, knowledge, and development of hunter-gatherer children. The twenty-six contributors to Hunter-Gatherer Childhoods use three general but complementary theoretical approaches--evolutionary, developmental, cultural--in their presentations of new and insightful ethnographic data. For instance, the authors employ these theoretical orientations to provide the first systematic studies of hunter-gatherer children's hunting, play, infant care by children, weaning and expressions of grief. The chapters focus on understanding the daily life experiences of children, and their views and feelings about their lives and cultural change. Chapters address some of the following questions: why does childhood exist, who cares for hunter-gatherer children, what are the characteristic features of hunter-gatherer children's development and what are the impacts of culture change on hunter-gatherer child care? The book is divided into five parts. The first section provides historical, theoretical and conceptual framework for the volume; the second section examines data to test competing hypotheses regarding why childhood is particularly long in humans; the third section expands on the second section by looking at who cares for hunter-gatherer children; the fourth section explores several developmental issues such as weaning, play and loss of loved ones; and, the final section examines the impact of sedentism and schools on hunter-gatherer children. This pioneering volume will help to stimulate further research and scholarship on hunter-gatherer childhoods, thereby advancing our understanding of the way of life that characterized most of human history and of the processes that may have shaped both human development and human evolution. MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 12 Preface 14 Contributors 16 I: THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL ISSUES 18 1 Emerging Issues in the Study of Hunter-Gatherer Children 20 2 Hunter-Gatherer Infancy and Childhood: The ÏKung and Others 36 3 Comes the Child before Man: How Cooperative Breeding and Prolonged Postweaning Dependence Shaped Human Potential 82 4 Studying Children in Hunter-Gatherer" Societies: Reflections from a Nay aka Perspective 109 II: WHY DOES CHILDHOOD EXIST? 120 Introduction 122 5 What Makes a Competent Adult Forager? 126 6 Martu Children's Hunting Strategies in the Western Desert, Australia 146 7 Growing Up Mikea: Children's Time Allocation and Tuber Foraging in Southwestern Madagascar 164 III: WHO CARES FOR HUNTER-GATHERER CHILDREN? 190 Introduction 192 8 Who Tends Hadza Children? 194 9 Child Caretakers Among Efe Foragers of the Ituri Forest 208 10 Older Hadza Meri and Women as Helpers: Residence Data 231 11 Juvenile Responses to Household Ecology Among the Yora of Peruvian Amazonia 254 12 The Growth and Kinship Resources of Ju/'hoansi Children 279 IV: SOCIAL, EMOTIONAL, COGNITIVE, AND MOTOR DEVELOPMENT 300 Introduction 302 13 Mother-Infant Interactions among the !Xun: Analysis of Gymnastic and Breastfeeding Behaviors 306 14 Weanling Emotional Patterns among the Bofi Foragers of Central Africa: The Role of Maternal Availability and Sensitivity 326 15 Vulnerable Lives: The Experience of Death and Loss among the Aka and Ngandu Adolescents of the Central African Republic 339 16 Play among Baka Children in Cameroon 360 V: CULTURE CHANGE AND FUTURE RESEARCH 378 Introduction 380 17 Infant Care among the Sedentarized Baka Hunter-Gatherers in Southeastern Cameroon 382 18 Deforesting among Andamanese Children: Political Economy and History of Schooling 402 19 Reflections on Hunter-Gatherer Childhoods 424 References 434 Index 476 "The twenty-six contributors to Hunter-Gatherer Childhoods use three general but complementary theoretical approaches - evolutionary, developmental, cultural - in their presentations of new and insightful ethnographic data. For instance, the authors employ these theoretical orientations to provide the first systematic studies of hunter-gatherer children's hunting, play, infant care by children, weaning and expressions of grief. The chapters focus on understanding the daily life experiences of children, and their views and feelings about their lives and cultural change."--BOOK JACKET

In the vast anthropological literature devoted to hunter-gatherer societies, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the place of hunter-gatherer children. Children often represent 40 percent of hunter-gatherer populations, thus nearly half the population is omitted from most hunter-gatherer ethnographies and research. The twenty-six contributions to this volume are designed to bridge the gap in our understanding of the daily lives, knowledge, and development of hunter-gatherer children.