Costly teaching contributes to the acquisition of spear hunting skill among BaYaka forager adolescents

Lew-Levy, S., Bombjakova, D., Milks, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0779-6200, Ntamboudila, F. K., Kline, M. A. and Broesch, T. (2022) Costly teaching contributes to the acquisition of spear hunting skill among BaYaka forager adolescents. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 289 (1974). ISSN 1471-2954 doi: 10.1098/rspb.2022.0164

Abstract/Summary

Teaching likely evolved in humans to facilitate the faithful transmission of complex tasks. As the oldest evidenced hunting technology, spear hunting requires acquiring several complex physical and cognitive competencies. In this study, we used observational and interview data collected among BaYaka foragers (Republic of the Congo) to test the predictions that costlier teaching types would be observed at a greater frequency than less costly teaching in the domain of spear hunting, and that teachers would calibrate their teaching to pupil skill level. To observe naturalistic teaching during spear hunting, we invited teacher-pupil groupings to spear hunt while wearing GoPro cameras. We analyzed 68 hours of footage totalling 519 teaching episodes. Most observed teaching events were costly. Direct instruction was the most frequently observed teaching type. Older pupils received less teaching and more opportunities to lead the spear hunt than their younger counterparts. Teachers did not appear to adjust their teaching to pupil experience, potentially because age was a more easily accessible heuristic for pupil skill than experience. Our study shows that costly teaching is frequently used to transmit complex tasks, and that instruction may play a privileged role in the transmission of spear hunting knowledge.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/105271
Identification Number/DOI	10.1098/rspb.2022.0164
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Department of Archaeology
Uncontrolled Keywords	evolution of teaching, hunter-gatherers, spear hunting, adolescence, cumulative culture
Publisher	The Royal Society
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