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Hunter-Gatherer Children’s Object Play and Tool Use: An Ethnohistorical Analysis

Learning to use, make, and modify tools is key to our species’ success. Researchers have hypothesized that play with objects may have a foundational role in the ontogeny of tool use and, over evolutionary timescales, in cumulative technological innovation. Yet, there are few systematic studies inves...

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Autores principales: Lew-Levy, Sheina, Andersen, Marc Malmdorf, Lavi, Noa, Riede, Felix
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9132165/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35645867
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.824983
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author Lew-Levy, Sheina
Andersen, Marc Malmdorf
Lavi, Noa
Riede, Felix
author_facet Lew-Levy, Sheina
Andersen, Marc Malmdorf
Lavi, Noa
Riede, Felix
author_sort Lew-Levy, Sheina
collection PubMed
description Learning to use, make, and modify tools is key to our species’ success. Researchers have hypothesized that play with objects may have a foundational role in the ontogeny of tool use and, over evolutionary timescales, in cumulative technological innovation. Yet, there are few systematic studies investigating children’s interactions with objects outside the post-industrialized West. Here, we survey the ethnohistorical record to uncover cross-cultural trends regarding hunter-gatherer children’s use of objects during play and instrumental activities. Our dataset, consisting of 434 observations of children’s toys and tools from 54 hunter-gatherer societies, reveals several salient trends: Most objects in our dataset are used in play. Children readily manufacture their own toys, such as dolls and shelters. Most of the objects that children interact with are constructed from multiple materials. Most of the objects in our dataset are full-sized or miniature versions of adult tools, reflecting learning for adult roles. Children also engage with objects related to child culture, primarily during play. Taken together, our findings show that hunter-gatherer children grow up playing, making, and learning with objects.
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spelling pubmed-91321652022-05-26 Hunter-Gatherer Children’s Object Play and Tool Use: An Ethnohistorical Analysis Lew-Levy, Sheina Andersen, Marc Malmdorf Lavi, Noa Riede, Felix Front Psychol Psychology Learning to use, make, and modify tools is key to our species’ success. Researchers have hypothesized that play with objects may have a foundational role in the ontogeny of tool use and, over evolutionary timescales, in cumulative technological innovation. Yet, there are few systematic studies investigating children’s interactions with objects outside the post-industrialized West. Here, we survey the ethnohistorical record to uncover cross-cultural trends regarding hunter-gatherer children’s use of objects during play and instrumental activities. Our dataset, consisting of 434 observations of children’s toys and tools from 54 hunter-gatherer societies, reveals several salient trends: Most objects in our dataset are used in play. Children readily manufacture their own toys, such as dolls and shelters. Most of the objects that children interact with are constructed from multiple materials. Most of the objects in our dataset are full-sized or miniature versions of adult tools, reflecting learning for adult roles. Children also engage with objects related to child culture, primarily during play. Taken together, our findings show that hunter-gatherer children grow up playing, making, and learning with objects. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-05-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9132165/ /pubmed/35645867 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.824983 Text en Copyright © 2022 Lew-Levy, Andersen, Lavi and Riede. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Lew-Levy, Sheina
Andersen, Marc Malmdorf
Lavi, Noa
Riede, Felix
Hunter-Gatherer Children’s Object Play and Tool Use: An Ethnohistorical Analysis
title Hunter-Gatherer Children’s Object Play and Tool Use: An Ethnohistorical Analysis
title_full Hunter-Gatherer Children’s Object Play and Tool Use: An Ethnohistorical Analysis
title_fullStr Hunter-Gatherer Children’s Object Play and Tool Use: An Ethnohistorical Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Hunter-Gatherer Children’s Object Play and Tool Use: An Ethnohistorical Analysis
title_short Hunter-Gatherer Children’s Object Play and Tool Use: An Ethnohistorical Analysis
title_sort hunter-gatherer children’s object play and tool use: an ethnohistorical analysis
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9132165/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35645867
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.824983
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