Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Teaching and the Life History of Cultural Transmission in Fijian Villages

  • Published:
Human Nature Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Much existing literature in anthropology suggests that teaching is rare in non-Western societies, and that cultural transmission is mostly vertical (parent-to-offspring). However, applications of evolutionary theory to humans predict both teaching and non-vertical transmission of culturally learned skills, behaviors, and knowledge should be common cross-culturally. Here, we review this body of theory to derive predictions about when teaching and non-vertical transmission should be adaptive, and thus more likely to be observed empirically. Using three interviews conducted with rural Fijian populations, we find that parents are more likely to teach than are other kin types, high-skill and highly valued domains are more likely to be taught, and oblique transmission is associated with high-skill domains, which are learned later in life. Finally, we conclude that the apparent conflict between theory and empirical evidence is due to a mismatch of theoretical hypotheses and empirical claims across disciplines, and we reconcile theory with the existing literature in light of our results.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aoki, K., Lehmann, L., & Feldman, M. W. (2011). Rates of cultural change and patterns of cultural accumulation in stochastic models of social transmission. Theoretical Population Biology, 79, 192–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arno, A. (1990). Disentangling indirectly: The joking debate in Fijian social control. In K. A. Watson-Gegeo & G. M. White (Eds.), Disentangling conflict discourse in Pacific societies (pp. 241–269). Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.

  • Aunger, R. (2000). The life history of culture learning in a face-to-face society. Ethos, 28(3), 445–481.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bird, D. W., & Bliege-Bird, R. (2002). Children on the reef: Slow learning or strategic foraging? Human Nature, 13(2), 269–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bliege-Bird, R., & Bird, D. W. (2002). Constraints of knowing or constraints of growing? Fishing and collecting by the children of Mer. Human Nature, 13(2), 239–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bock, J. (2002). Learning, life history, and productivity: Children’s lives in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Human Nature, 12, 161–197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borofsky, R. (1987). Making history: Pukapukan and anthropological constructions of knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. J. (1985). Culture and the evolutionary process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. J. (1988). An evolutionary model of social learning: The effects of spatial and temporal variation. In T. Zentall & B. G. Galef (Eds.), Social learning: A psychological and biological approaches (pp. 29–48). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. J. (1996). Why culture is common but cultural evolution is rare. Proceedings of the British Academy, 88, 73–96. http://www.britac.ac.uk/pubs/cat/pba88.cfm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, R., Richerson, P. J., & Henrich, J. (2011). The cultural niche: Why social learning is essential for human adaptation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 108, 10918–10925.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brison, K. T. (1999). Hierarchy in the world of Fijian children. Ethnology, 38, 97–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brison, K. T. (2007). Imagining modernity in rural Fiji. Ethnology, 42, 335–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caro, T., & Hauser, M. (1992). Is there teaching in nonhuman animals? Quarterly Review of Biology, 67(2), 151–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., & Feldman, M. W. (1981). Cultural transmission and evolution: A quantitative approach. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coy, M. (1989). Apprenticeship: From theory to methods and back again. Albany: SUNY Albany Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dakuidreketi, M.R. (2006). Contexts of science teaching and learning in Fiji primary schools: A comparative study of ethnic Fijian and Indo-Fijian communities. (Doctoral Dissertation). University of Canterbury School of Educational Studies and Human Development.

  • Enquist, M., Eriksson, K., & Ghirlanda, S. (2007). Critical social learning: A solution to Rogers’s paradox of nonadaptive culture. American Anthropologist, 109, 727–734.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, M. W., Aoki, K., Kumm, J. (1996). Individual versus social learning: Evolutionary analysis in a fluctuating environment. Santa Fe Institute Working Paper. Available online at http://www.santafe.edu/research/working-papers/abstract/158eef061eba1f42429d322426508c20/

  • Gatty, R. (2009). Fijian-English dictionary, with notes on Fijian culture and natural history. Suva: Oceania Printers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gergely, G., & Csibra, G. (2006). Sylvia’s recipe: The role of imitation and pedagogy in the transmission of cultural knowledge. In N. J. Enfield & S. C. Levenson (Eds.), Roots of human sociality: Culture, cognition, and human interaction (pp. 229–255). Berg: Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gergely, G., & Csibra, G. (2011). Natural pedagogy and an evolutionary adaptation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366, 1149–1157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, J. (2009). The evolution of costly displays, cooperation, and religion: Credibility enhancing displays and their implications for cultural evolution. Evolution and Human Behavior, 30, 244–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, J., & Boyd, R. (1998). The evolution of conformist transmission and the emergence of between-group differences. Evolution and Human Behavior, 19, 215–241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, J., & Broesch, J. (2011). On the nature of cultural transmission networks: Evidence from Fijian villages for adaptive learning biases. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366, 1139–1148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, J., & Gil-White, F. J. (2001). The evolution of prestige: Freely conferred deference as a mechanism for enhancing the benefits of cultural transmission. Evolution and Human Behavior, 22, 165–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, J., & Henrich, N. (2010). The evolution of cultural adaptations: Fijian food taboos protect against dangerous marine toxins. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277, 3715–3724.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, J., Ensminger, J., McElreath, R., Barr, A., Barrett, C., Bolyanatz, A., et al. (2010a). Markets, religion, community size, and the evolution of fairness and punishment. Science, 327, 1480–1484. doi:10.1126/science.1182238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010b). The weirdest people in the world. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2–3), 61–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hewlett, B. S., & Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. (1986). Cultural transmission among Aka pygmies. American Anthropologist, 88, 922–934.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hewlett, B. S., & Lamb, M. E. (2007). Hunter-gatherer childhoods: Evolutionary, development, and cultural perspectives. New Brunswick: Aldine/Transaction.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hewlett, B. S., Fouts, H. N., Boyette, A. H., & Hewlett, B. L. (2011). Social learning among Congo basin hunter-gatherers. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366, 1168–1178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill, K., Barton, M., & Hurtado, A. M. (2009). The emergence of human uniqueness: Characters underlying behavioral modernity. Evolutionary Anthropology, 18, 187–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hocart, A. M. (1929). Lau Islands, Fiji. Honolulu: Bernice P. Bishop Museum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoppitt, W., & Laland, K. (2008). Social processes influencing learning in animals: A review of the evidence. Advances in the Study of Behavior, 38, 105–165.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoppitt, W. J. E., Brown, G. R., Kendal, R., Rendell, L., Thornton, A., Webster, M. M., et al. (2008). Lessons from animal teaching. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 23, 486–493.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaswal, V. K., Croft, A., Carrington, S., Alison, R., & Cole, C. A. (2010). Young children have a specific, highly robust bias to trust testimony. Psychological Science, 21, 1541–1547.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kameda, T., & Nakanishi, D. (2003). Does social/cultural learning increase human adaptability? Rogers’s question revisited. Evolution and Human Behavior, 24, 242–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, H., Hill, K., Lancaster, J., & Hurtado, A. M. (2000). A theory of human life history evolution: Diet, intelligence, and longevity. Evolutionary Anthropology, 9, 156–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koenig, M., & Harris, P. (2007). The basis of epistemic trust: Reliable testimony or reliable sources? Episteme, 4, 264–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lancy, D. (2008). Anthropology of childhood: Cherubs, chattel, changelings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lancy, D., & Grove, M. A. (2010). The role of adults in children’s learning. In D. F. Lancy, J. Bock, & S. Gaskins (Eds.), The anthropology of learning in childhood (pp. 145–179). Lanham: AltaMira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lancy, D. F., & Grove, M. A. (2011). Getting noticed: Middle childhood in cross-cultural perspective. Human Nature, 22, 281–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McElreath, R., & Strimling, P. (2008). When natural selection favors imitation of parents. Current Anthropology, 49, 307–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nabobo-Baba, U. (2006). Knowing & learning: An indigenous Fijian approach. Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nakahashi, W., Wakano, J., & Henrich, J. (2012). Conditions for conformist transmission: Spatial variation and the number of cultural traits favors conformist biases over individual learning, unbiased transmission, and payoff-biased transmission. Human Nature, 23, 386–418.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nayacakalou, R. (1975). Leadership in Fiji. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ochs, E., & Schieffelin, B. B. (1984). Language acquisition and socialization. In R. A. Shweder & R. A. Levine (Eds.), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self, and emotion (pp. 263–301). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perreault, C., Cristina, M., & Robert, B. (2012). A Bayesian approach to the evolution of social learning. Evolution and Human Behavior, 33, 449–459.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ravuvu, A. (1983). The Fijian way. Suva: University of South Pacific Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rendell, L., Fogarty, L., & Laland, K. (2010). Rogers’s paradox recast and resolved: Population structure and the evolution of social learning strategies. Evolution, 64, 534–548.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reyes-García, V., Broesch, J., Calvet-Mir, L., Fuentes-Peláez, N., McDade, T. W., Parsa, S., et al. (2009). Cultural transmission of ethnobotanical knowledge and skills: An empirical analysis from an Amerindian society. Evolution and Human Behavior, 30, 274–285. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2009.02.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ritchie, J. B., & Ritchie, J. E. (1979). Growing up in Polynesia. Worthing: Littlehampton Book Svc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, A. R. (1988). Does biology constrain culture? American Anthropologist, 90, 819–831.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sahlins, M. D. (1962). Moala: Culture and nature on a Fijian island. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shennan, S., & Steele, J. (1999). Cultural learning in hominids: A behavioural ecological approach. In H. Box & K. Gibson (Eds.), Mammalian social learning: Comparative and ecological perspectives (pp. 367–388). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (1995). Relevance: Communication and cognition (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sperber, D., Clement, F., Heintz, C., Mascaro, O., Mercier, H., Origgi, G., et al. (2010). Epistemic vigilance. Mind & Language, 25, 359–393.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, A., & Raihani, N. (2008). The evolution of teaching. Animal Behaviour, 75, 1823–1836.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toren, C. (1990). Making sense of hierarchy. Atlantic Highlands: Athlone Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Veramu, J. (1992). Let’s do it our way: A case study of participatory education in a rural Fijian school and community. Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wakano, J. Y., & Aoki, K. (2007). Do social learning and conformist bias coevolve? Henrich and Boyd revisited. Theoretical Population Biology, 72, 504–512.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White, C. M. (2007). Schooling in Fiji. In C. Campbell & G. Sherington (Eds.), Going to school in Oceania (pp. 79–132). Westport: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was completed as part of a project funded by National Institute of Health Challenge Grant, National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant, National Science Foundation PECASE, Social Science Research Council (Canada), and a Leakey Foundation General Research Grant. We thank the UCLA Experimental Behavioral Anthropology lab group and members of the UCLA Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture for useful feedback, and Cristina Moya for sharing scripts for plotting in R. We thank Melaia Velamei, Paula Tekei, and Joji Rayasidamu for their excellent work as research assistants, and the people of Teci, Dalomo, and Bukama villages for their participation and generous hospitality.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Michelle A. Kline

  2. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, 85287, USA

    Robert Boyd

  3. Sante Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, 87501, USA

    Robert Boyd

  4. Departments of Psychology and Economics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z4

    Joseph Henrich

Authors
  1. Michelle A. Kline
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Robert Boyd
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Joseph Henrich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michelle A. Kline.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

ESM 1

(DOCX 244 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kline, M.A., Boyd, R. & Henrich, J. Teaching and the Life History of Cultural Transmission in Fijian Villages. Hum Nat 24, 351–374 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-013-9180-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-013-9180-1

Key words

Search

Navigation