RT Journal Article
SR 00
ID 10.1038/s41598-022-12217-1
A1 Lew-Levy, Sheina
A1 Reckin, Rachel
A1 Boyette, Adam H.
A1 Pretelli, Ilaria
A1 Kissler, Stephen M.
A1 Crittenden, Alyssa
A1 Hagen, Renée V.
A1 Haas, Randall
A1 Kramer, Karen
A1 O'Brien, Matthew J.
A1 Koster, Jeremy
A1 Sonoda, Koji
A1 Surovell, Todd A.
A1 Stieglitz, Jonathan
A1 Tucker, Bram
A1 Lavi, Noa
A1 Ellis-Davies, Kate
A1 Davis, Helen
T1 Socioecology shapes child and adolescent time allocation in twelve hunter-gatherer and mixed-subsistence forager societies
JF Scientific Reports
YR 2022
FD 2022-05
VO vol. 12
IS n° 8054
AB A key issue distinguishing prominent evolutionary models of human life history is whether prolonged childhood evolved to facilitate learning in a skill- and strength-intensive foraging niche requiring high levels of cooperation. Considering the diversity of environments humans inhabit, children’s activities should also reflect local social and ecological opportunities and constraints. To better understand our species’ developmental plasticity, the present paper compiled a time allocation dataset for children and adolescents from twelve hunter-gatherer and mixed-subsistence forager societies (n = 690; 3–18 years; 52% girls). We investigated how environmental factors, local ecological risk, and men and women’s relative energetic contributions were associated with cross-cultural variation in child and adolescent time allocation to childcare, food production, domestic work, and play. Annual precipitation, annual mean temperature, and net primary productivity were not strongly associated with child and adolescent activity budgets. Increased risk of encounters with dangerous animals and dehydration negatively predicted time allocation to childcare and domestic work, but not food production. Gender differences in child and adolescent activity budgets were stronger in societies where men made greater direct contributions to food production than women. We interpret these findings as suggesting that children and their caregivers adjust their activities to facilitate the early acquisition of knowledge which helps children safely cooperate with adults in a range of social and ecological environments. These findings compel us to consider how childhood may have also evolved to facilitate flexible participation in productive activities in early life.
PB Nature Publishing Group
SN 2045-2322
LK https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/45448/
UL http://iast.fr/pub/126912