Abstract
Hunter-gatherer societies, including groups of the San, have occupied a particularly important place in research on child socialization. This is principally because the features of hunter-gatherer societies have been associated with discussions about the nature of human child rearing. However, few studies have empirically analyzed the education and learning that actually occur during the everyday life of the San. To reconsider several of the premises underpinning most approaches to human education and learning, I performed an interaction analysis of the mutual accommodation that occurs while caregivers and infants engage in nursing and “gymnastic” behaviors and the process by which children imitate each other during singing/dancing activities among the G|ui and G||ana (Central Kalahari San) living in Botswana. This analysis clarifies how participants in interactions align and affiliate with each other during culturally distinctive activities. These dynamics serve as a foundation for the education and learning that is inherent in collaboratively organized sequences of interactions, by means of which experienced and inexperienced people participate in social situations, such as those listed above. The approach adopted in this paper also facilitates reconsideration of the individualistic perspectives on ability.
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Notes
- 1.
Active discussions based on these arguments are still ongoing. The abovementioned RNMH project is also part of such discussions. The author believes that the attitudes, which focus on humans’ natural state, already encompass the cultural constructions that reflect the research contexts of those discussions (e.g., Strathern 1992, pp. 44–61; Takada 2005b, 2009).
- 2.
These differences are thought to be created by the degree of difficulty of skill and amount of labor required in each subsistence activity and by whether any danger is involved or not (Hames and Draper 2004).
- 3.
In contrast, anthropologists have been quiet in these movements. Maurice Bloch, who contributed significantly to the development of ritual studies and cognitive anthropology, wrote an essay with the provocative title, “Where did anthropology go? Or the need for “human nature”.” In this article, he ironically criticized the current situation, in which psychologists and other researchers in the related fields struggle to find cultural anthropologists to collaborate with in their investigations into the relationship between culture and humanity. According to him, even the raising of such questions tends to be avoided in anthropology today. For Bloch, this situation is unacceptable. Accordingly, he argued as follows: anthropologists should hold the perspective that culture is embedded in the processes of everyday practices, which make up the ecology of life. He then insisted that through promoting research based on functionalism in a broad sense, such interdisciplinary cooperation could be possible (Bloch 2005: 1–19). The discussion in this article responds to these agitations from Bloch (2005).
- 4.
In their experimental research, Gergely et al. (2002) showed unusual actions to infants aged 14 months, which involved pushing a switch placed on the table with the model (performer)’s forehead in two situations: (1) when the performer was unable to use both hands and (2) when the performer was able to use both hands. One week after these action demonstrations, the switch was placed in front of the same infants, and the result was that most of the infants who observed situation (1) pushed the switch with their hands, while infants under situation (2) pushed the switch with their forehead. These results suggest that infants thought that the model (performer) in situation (1) used the forehead because there was no other way to push the switch, and thus, the infants chose a more reasonable way for themselves (i.e., they used their hands to push the switch). Gergely called such imitations rational, prioritizing the intention rather than the means of the model’s action.
- 5.
For example, according to Enard et al. (2002), the ability to develop languages, which serves as a condition for developing human culture, is related to a gene, FOXP2, which is located on the long arm of chromosome 7 at position 7q31. Furthermore, research on the comparison of amino acid sequences in FOXP2 between humans and chimps, gorillas, orangutans, squirrel monkeys, and mice, as well as research on variation in FOXP2 in humans, suggest that FOXP2 is broadly preserved in mammals, whereas the amino acid sequence of the FOXP2 protein is the distinctive feature for humans, which is formed in the evolution process. In addition, according to Allison et al. (2000), the superior temporal sulcus (STS) area in monkeys, such as squirrel monkeys and macaques, as well as in humans, is activated when dealing with the biological movement of the eyes, mouth, hands, and body of others, as well as the stationary images of the face and body of others. Hence, this suggests that the STS area and its surrounding brain cortex play an important role in the early stage of information processing, enabling humans to properly comprehend the intentions of others.
- 6.
A book edited by Lancy et al. (2010) summarizes the latest research outcomes in anthropology with regard to education and learning and served as an inspiration of the possibilities I have addressed. In their work, studies applying various approaches, including ethnography, evolutionary anthropology, and psychological anthropology, are referenced, and the field sites focused on in the book also range broadly from households in the United States to forests where primates live alongside humans. Furthermore, this book emphasizes the diversity inherent when knowledge is passed down through generations and offers the principle insight that it is important to pay careful attention to the fact that learning is embedded in social processes that are not explicitly organized for learning (pp. 3–6). An article by Lancy and Grove (2010) included in this book contains a review of a study that was conducted about when, with what purpose, and how various interventions by adults to children were conducted (although in the author’s view, these interventions cannot be called education) in a traditional village where it has been said that very little education was originally provided by adults (also refer to Lancy 2008, pp. 112–153, 234–271). Such research on education embedded in situations will produce outcomes that resonate with my interests discussed in this paper.
- 7.
In the reminder of this article, unmarked “learning” essentially indicates SL’, regardless of whether it co-occurs with IL’.
- 8.
Additionally, breastfeeding facilitates hormone production in mothers. For instance, frequent breastfeeding constitutes a key variable in maternal gonadal suppression that could account for the long interbirth interval (Konner and Worthman 1980).
- 9.
Although it has been said that most hunter-gatherer societies, including that of the G|ui/G||ana, traditionally do not have a system in which experienced members introduce mature skills to inexperienced members in specialized settings, such as school, at the level of institutions, it is not unusual for experienced members to instruct inexperienced members at the level of actions, as shown in this excerpt.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to express my gratitude to the government of Botswana for providing us with permission to conduct this research (OP 46/1 XLII (43)). This work is financially supported by the JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (S) “Cultural formation of responsibility in caregiver-child interactions” (Project No. 19672002 headed by Akira Takada), JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) “Cultural and ecological foundations of education and learning: An anthropological study on rhythm, imitation, and exchange (Project No. 24242035 headed by Akira Takada),” and JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas “Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans: Testing Evolutionary Models of Learning (Grant No. 1201 headed by Takeru Akazawa).”
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Takada, A. (2016). Education and Learning During Social Situations Among the Central Kalahari San. 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_8
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