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Social and Epistemological Dimensions of Learning Among Nayaka Hunter-Gatherers

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Social Learning and Innovation in Contemporary Hunter-Gatherers

Part of the book series: Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans Series ((RNMH))

Abstract

This chapter explores patterns of knowing and learning, among Nayaka hunter-gatherers (South India). I will argue that knowing and learning is embedded within two main contexts. One is personal experimentation, which often involves processes of trial and error. The second context is engagement with others in which learning is not a singularized event and knowledge is not objectified out of actual experience and actual relations. In both contexts, learning is characterized by firsthand experience, which includes adults’ appreciation of the need; children have to learn for themselves through direct experience. The chapter draws special attention to the importance of the epistemological aspect in social learning, the use of questions and patterns of classification among the Nayaka and other hunter-gatherer groups.

This chapter is a revised version of a paper titled “Knowing and Learning among Nayaka Hunter-Gatherers” published in Asian Anthropology, 2014. In this version I address some local notions with regard to learning that came to light while I was attempting to learn the local language. These aspects as well as few other relevant examples presented here were not dealt with in the earlier version.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Nayaka lives in the lower northwestern slopes of the Nilgiri Hills (the Nilgiri-Wynaad). The communities with whom I lived in 2001 and mainly in 2003–2004 are settled along the Tamil Nadu – Kerala border. Up until the late 1980s, they conformed to most of Woodburn’s (1982) criteria for immediate-return hunter-gatherers (Bird-David 1990: 190). Since the mid-1990s, they have increasingly engaged with small-scale agriculture and animal husbandry as well as with continuing gathering and hunting practices.

  2. 2.

    See Naveh and Bird-David for references concerning similar patterns of knowing among other hunter-gatherer communities. See also Ingold (1996) for similar analytical argument concerning hunter-gatherers’ way of knowing.

  3. 3.

    Fictive names are used for ethical reasons. Names like “Rajan”, “Suresh” or “Sangitha” are not traditional Nayaka names, though nowadays such designations are probably among the most common given to Nayaka children. The tendency among Nayaka, as well as other local groups in the research area, to give children common Tamil and Malayalam names has been gaining increasing momentum over the last 30 years. While using fictive names in the text, those that were traditional were replaced by me with traditional names and the nontraditional were replace by nontraditional designations.

  4. 4.

    KK is one of the two main Nayaka communities I studied. I lived there for a period of 8 months.

  5. 5.

    Kaka is a local term for Muslim people. Some of them now live on deforested lands.

  6. 6.

    I am aware that the reader might feel that I am, somehow, being carried away by subjective interpretations regarding the emotional states of these two people. However, stripping the description of this scene from its empathetic characteristics – empathy that was so prominent while this episode was observed – would be simply misleading and only a partial description of what was going on.

  7. 7.

    c.f. Misra (1977): 121 for a different notion among the neighboring Jenu Kuruba concerning whether elephants have or can have budi.

  8. 8.

    It should be noted that apart for one girl, none of the people with whom I lived remained in any of these programs for a period longer than a few weeks running. It should also be mentioned, however, that among other communities, especially in Kerala, some Nayaka children participate in such programs for much longer periods that can last up to 12 years.

  9. 9.

    Another scheduled tribe in the state of Kerala.

  10. 10.

    Each hill is a different person.

  11. 11.

    Indeed it took a while before I had fully understood that the structure of my questions was quite bizarre from their point of view. However, even later on I occasionally continued to use these kinds of questions as a means of provoking multi-perspective conversations.

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Acknowledgments

I thank the Nayaka, who accepted me into their lives and enabled me to learn through shared experiences about the way they get to know their world. I thank Nurit Bird-David for her helpful and constructive comments. I thank Peter Gardner for additional constructive comments and for his consistent encouragement to write about this matter. His encouragement played a vital and central role in the preparation of this chapter. I would also like to thank Hideaki Terashima and Barry Hewlett for setting up the superb workshop on social learning among hunter-gatherers in Kobe Gakuin University. This workshop was a true source for inspiration and idea exchange. I would also like to thank them for their helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

    Danny Naveh

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  1. Danny Naveh
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Correspondence to Danny Naveh .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, Kobe Gakuin University, Kobe, Japan

    Hideaki Terashima

  2. Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Vancouver, WA, USA

    Barry S. Hewlett

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Naveh, D. (2016). Social and Epistemological Dimensions of Learning Among Nayaka Hunter-Gatherers. In: Terashima, H., Hewlett, B.S. (eds) Social Learning and Innovation in Contemporary Hunter-Gatherers. Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans Series. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55997-9_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55997-9_10

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