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Social Learning and Innovation in Adolescence

A Comparative Study of Aka and Chabu Hunter-Gatherers of Central and Eastern Africa

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Abstract

This paper examines how innovative skills and knowledge are transmitted and acquired among adolescents in two hunter-gatherer communities, the Aka of southern Central African Republic and the Chabu of southwestern Ethiopia. Modes of transmission and processes of social learning are addressed. Innovation as well as social learning have been hypothesized to be key features of human cumulative culture, enhancing the fitness and survival of individuals in diverse environments. The innovation literature indicates adult males are more innovative than children and female adults and therefore predicts that adolescents will seek out adult males. Further, the mode of transmission should be oblique (i.e., learning from adults other than parents). Thus, learning of innovations should be oblique or horizontal rather than vertical, with adolescents paying particular attention to “successful” innovative individuals (prestige bias). The social learning literature indicates that complex skills or knowledge is likely to be learned through teaching, and therefore that teaching will be an important process in the transmission of innovations. In-depth and semi-structured interviews, informal observations, and systematic free-listing were used to evaluate these hypotheses. The study found that (1) cultural context patterned whether or not adolescents sought out adult male or female innovators; (2) oblique modes of transmission were mentioned with greater frequency than horizontal or vertical modes; (3) knowledge and skill bias was notable and explicitly linked by the adolescents to reproductive effort; and (4) teaching was biased toward same-sex individuals and was an important but not an exclusive means of transmitting complex skills and social knowledge.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Notes

  1. “Small scale” refers to societies generally lacking significant market integration, having limited interaction with state-based entities, and being strongly influenced by long-standing social norms that minimize social stratification and inequality (Garfield et al., 2019; Reyes-García et al., 2017).

  2. “Foundational schema” refers to modes of thought that pervade life, from subsistence activities to who sleeps together to how to organize a dance.

  3. The publications by Scheinfeldt et al. (2019) and Schnoebelen (2009) use the Majang word Sabue, or Shabu, rather than the ethnonym Chabu.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to express my gratitude to the Aka and Chabu people with whom I conducted this research. And for the thorough, careful reading and thoughtful contributions of Barry Hewlett, Zachary Garfield and the four reviewers. Lastly, to JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas “Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans: Testing Evolutionary Models of Learning” Grant headed by Takeru Akazawa.

Funding

This work was fully funded by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Hideaki Tereshima, PI) Grant-in-aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas.

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  1. College of Arts and Sciences, Washington State University, Vancouver, 14204 NE Salmon Creek Ave., Vancouver, WA, 98686, USA

    Bonnie Hewlett

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Correspondence to Bonnie Hewlett.

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Certification of Exemption, IRB No. 12339. Based on the Exemption Determination Application submitted for the studies “Social Learning among Aka Adolescents” and “Social Learning among Chabu Adolescents,” the WSU Office of Research Assurances has determined that the study satisfies the criteria for Exempt Research at 45 CFR 46.101(b)(2). This study was conducted according to the protocol described in the Application and reviewed by the IRB.

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All informed consent forms, both written and verbal, were obtained from individuals to participate in the study prior to study and were freely given from participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 16).

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Hewlett, B. Social Learning and Innovation in Adolescence. Hum Nat 32, 239–278 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-021-09391-y

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