4 The G|ui/G||ana of the Central Kalahari
Tải bản đầy đủ - 0trang
8
Education and Learning During Social Situations Among the Central Kalahari San
!Oi!om residents who favored relocation began to move to
Kx’oensakene, a new settlement outside the CKGR. Migration snowballed, and most CKGR residents resettled in
Kx’oensakene. Then, national and international movements
were organized to fight for the rights of the San, and a case
was filed against this policy implementation, claiming that it
was forced relocation. After a protracted legal battle, in 2006
some Kx’oensakene residents were allowed to return to the
camps inside the CKGR. Despite this landmark court victory, however, it is still difficult for the G|ui/G||ana to make a
sustainable living inside the CKGR. Notably, the right to
freely enter the CKGR was not granted to the majority of the
G|ui/G||ana, who were relocated before 2002.
I collected literature and field data on trips to Southern
Africa that covered a total of 42 months (up to January
2015), beginning in 1997. The field research for this paper
was mainly conducted in Kx’oensakene. During the field
research, the population of this area was approximately
1,000 G|ui and G||ana in Kx’oensakene (as of April 2000). I
recorded their interactions using a video camera, while periodically visiting their houses, as well as accompanying their
foraging activities. I also conducted interviews with people
about relevant activities. Interaction analysis (Nishizaka
2008) provides one of the frameworks to analyze these
video data. This analysis was derived from conversation
analysis (Schegloff 2007), which discusses human sociality
based on the detailed empirical analysis of language use.
Interaction analysis has been advanced with the expansion of
the modes of communication to be analyzed and the theoretical framework of conversation analysis (e.g., Streeck et al.
2011).
8.5
Cooperative Action in Social Situations
Below, I perform an interaction analysis of the following:
(1) the mutual accommodation that occurs while caregivers
and infants engage in nursing and “gymnastic” behaviors
and (2) the process by which children imitate each other
during singing/dancing activities. These examples encourage us to focus on the relationship between the participants
of interactions, rather than individuals, as the unit of analysis, and to inquire into the sequential organization of
microlevel interactions, which will allow us to consider
education and learning in everyday life.
8.5.1
The Mutual Accommodation Between
Caregivers and Infants During Nursing
and Gymnastic Behaviors
The relationship between caregivers and infants is
characterized by the intercorporeal uses of their bodies.
105
This corporeal field, as the embodiment of values and the
setting of cultural practices, works as the ground engendering their characteristic intersubjectivity. Previous studies
have shown that across language/area-based groups, young
children of the San have extremely close relationships with
their mothers. The degree of mother-infant physical contact
is much greater than that between their counterparts in
Western societies (Konner 1976, 1977). Moreover, nursing
usually occurs for only a few minutes at a time, several times
each hour for 1.5 years after the birth of infants (Konner and
Worthman 1980). From detailed analysis, Takada (2005b)
determined the following reasons that form this kind of
frequent short-interval nursing among a group of San (!
Xun).
First, mothers could nurse their infants at any time, in any
location. For example, mothers breastfed their infants while
cooking, sewing, or smoking. Moreover, mothers did not
hesitate to nurse the infants when other people were present.
Second, mothers nursed their infants to soothe them. Infants
tended to stop fussing when their mothers started to nurse
them. Third, sucking was negatively correlated with “gymnastic” behavior (defined as a series of behaviors in which
caregivers keep infants standing or jumping on their laps; see
below). Moreover, breastfeeding was sometimes terminated
at the onset of gymnastic behavior. Fourth, sucking negatively correlated with the caregivers’ gaze. This could be
because when mothers nursed, the mothers became more
relaxed than usual. Consequently, it was not until infants
started fretting that mothers took action. Fifth, the rate of
jiggling after a break in sucking was almost the same as the
base rate. Kaye (1982) reported that in the United States,
there is a contingent, turn-taking relationship between
sucking and jiggling, which enables breastfeeding to be
prolonged. This finding is important because in postindustrialized society, extending the duration of breastfeeding
bouts is considered to be an indicator of the development of
the stable lifestyle of the infant (e.g., Baba 2000, pp. 22–24;
Imamura 2001, pp. 108–109). Moreover, Kaye and his
followers asserted that turn-taking between suckling and
jiggling is a fundamental, universal feature of mother-infant
interaction (Kaye 1982; Masataka 1993). Conversely,
repeated jiggling-sucking turn-taking hardly occurred
among the San (!Xun). The caregivers do not react to
the onset of a pause in sucking, but to the infant fretting or
crying.
Similar frequent, brief nursing has also been observed
among the G|ui/G||ana. Figure 8.3 shows the serial photos
that captured their nursing practice. In this case, a
woman, M, nursed her infant, Ax, who was 7 weeks old, in
front of her hut. Inside the hut, there were two children: Gt,
who is the older sister of Ax and 39 months old, and P, who
is the nephew of M (M’s older sister’s son) and was approximately 10 years old at the time.
106
Fig. 8.3 Gymnastic activity
occurring directly after nursing
A. Takada
a
c
At the beginning of the video clip, M was nursing Ax
while sitting in front of the hut. M talked to Gt about her
grandfather and his friend, who were some distance away,
while nursing (Fig. 8.3a). After a short sucking period lasting for approximately 34 s, Ax dropped the nipple from her
mouth and started swinging her extremities. M immediately
looked into Ax’s face and tried to make Ax bring her mouth
to the nipple, using her right hand. This attempt failed,
however, and M voiced “ʔo ʔo: ʔo ʔo:” to Ax to soothe her
(Fig. 8.3b). Nonetheless, Ax kept swinging her extremities.
After looking to the left, M gazed at Ax again and put Ax in a
sitting posture by holding her body up by her hands
(Fig. 8.3c). After a brief moment, Ax’s movement of her
extremities slowed. Moreover, after glancing to the left, M
picked Ax up and kept her in a standing position by holding
Ax’s body (Fig. 8.3d), making Ax engage in gymnastic
behavior, which included a continuous stepping movement
of Ax’s legs. M then gazed at Ax’s body, grabbed Ax’s body
twice, and then tapped Ax’s body repeatedly while engaging
her in the gymnastic behavior. She reduced the pressure of
her hands, which were holding up Ax’s body. Consequently,
Ax shifted to a crouched posture because she still could not
sustain her body weight by herself. M looked at Ax and once
again put her into a sitting position.
The above interactions demonstrate that when the infant
starts fretting, the mother reacts to her/him. The mother
tends not to gaze at the infant while the infant engages in
b
d
quiet sucking. Naturally, a 7-week-old infant in a reclining
position can only perform a narrow variety of actions, such
as sucking the nipple and moving the extremities. Using
these actions, however, Ax apparently reacted to the given
context. In the meantime, the mother was dealing with a
much broader context while she sat and nursed the infant in
front of their hut. Even within this short fragment of
interactions, she looked in front of her and gossiped about
her relatives with her older daughter, Gt, in addition to
continuously holding the infant and caring for her. She was
thus involved in a complicated participation framework, as
well as multitasking. This is one of the reasons why the
mother tended not to gaze at the infant while she was
sucking and reacted only after the infant started fretting.
Early studies considered the close mother-infant bond
among the San as a type of behavior that was opposite to
that of their Western counterparts. The former tended to
be understood as an original, affectionate relationship
between mother and infant, whereas the latter places more
emphasis on exercising the child’s independence. However,
recent literature on attachment reconsiders this premise and
recognizes the cultural diversity of caregiver-infant
relationships in small-scale societies (e.g., Quinn and
Mageo 2013). The present study supports this view. San
mothers have their own contexts of caregiving. Their distinctive style of nursing should be appreciated in terms of
these circumstances.
8
Education and Learning During Social Situations Among the Central Kalahari San
Note that in the above example, gymnastic behavior
occurred directly after the nursing activity. Elsewhere I
have described the practices of gymnastic behavior among
groups of San and have discussed the role of this distinctive
caregiving behavior with respect to socialization (Takada
2002b, 2004, 2005b, 2011b). Takada (2005b) noted that
sucking negatively correlated with gymnastic behavior,
and breastfeeding was sometimes terminated at the onset
of this behavior. Among San groups, infants frequently
engage in gymnastic behavior, beginning only several
weeks after birth (Konner 1973, 1976; Takada 2002b,
2004, 2005b, 2011b). In the early stages, caregivers hold
the infant softly and move them gently, and then along with
the development of the infant, gymnastic exercise becomes
increasingly active, and the infants are even sometimes
thrown up in the air. Other people in eastern and western
Africa (Super 1976; Bril et al. 1989) also practice such
gymnastic behavior.
Gymnastic behavior induces the stepping reflex in an
infant. This reflex, also called the U-shaped primitive reflex,
is present at birth, but usually disappears within the first few
months of life. Subsequently, the stepping response
reappears when the infant begins to stand and walk (Cole
and Cole 1993, pp. 136–137, 152; Bly 1994). However, I
found that among San groups, including the G|ui/G||ana,
gymnastic behavior induced the stepping reflex and
prevented its disappearance in infants over 2 months of age
(Takada 2002b, 2004, 2005b, 2011b). This finding supports
the hypothesis that the stepping reflex is not innately
programmed to disappear, but is a flexible behavior that
will occur in certain situations. Moreover, my data suggest
that gymnastic behavior occurred in a cheerful atmosphere.
In many cases, including the above, infants made a fuss just
before the gymnastic behavior occurred, and caregivers tried
to soothe them by engaging them in gymnastic activity
(Takada 2002b, 2004, 2005b, 2011b). Accordingly, the
mother created rhythms collaboratively with the infant in
the course of gymnastic activity.
The above uses of the body characterize the cooperative
stance between mothers and infants among the San.
Although the 7-week-old infant is far below the age of
being able to understand the intentions of the mother, mother
and infant mutually accommodated their behaviors by
reiterating a minute coordination of their posture, attention,
gaze, and other senses in the course of their interactions. It is
noteworthy that, in these interactions, the mother’s and
infant’s bodies were used in distinctive manners. Both frequent breastfeeding and gymnastic behavior provide the
infant with physical pleasure. Breastfeeding not only
satisfies the infant’s hunger but also provides the infant
with the simple rhythmical stimulus of sucking.8 Moreover,
the mother changed the posture of the infant often. The
mother placed the infant in a lying position while
107
breastfeeding and held the baby in a standing position for
gymnastic behavior. In these manners, various aspects of the
body of the mother, as well as those of the infant, were used
as semiotic resources for their communicative practices.
Moreover, uses of their bodies are embedded in the setting
of culturally formed conventions and thereby provide the
basis engendering the characteristic intersubjectivity of the
G|ui/G||ana. The fact that both infant and mother become
gradually accustomed to these conventions in their everyday
life provides the foundations for G|ui/G||ana education and
learning. In other words, the accumulation of their
interactions shapes “microhabitats” in which the participants
of interactions dwell. Microhabitats include both “corporeal
niches” (e.g., infant held upright, lying down in caregiver’s
arms, etc.) and “material niches” (e.g., slings, blankets, etc.)
(Ochs et al. 2005, pp. 554–555), both of which can be seen as
variants of “developmental niches” (Super and Harkness
1986). The culturally distinctive habitus (Bourdieu 1977)
of G|ui/G||ana is generated from the microhabitats. As the
next section shows, through expanding their microhabitats,
children gradually develop their habitus.
8.5.2
Imitation in Singing/Dancing Activities
of Multiaged Child Groups
Among San groups, when the close mother-child relationship declines, children begin to switch from a strong attachment to the mother to an attachment to a multiaged group of
children. Older children habitually take care of youngsters
without the supervision of adults (Konner 1977, p. 290;
Takada 2010a, b). This trend is also observed among G|ui/
G||ana children. Like other San groups, G|ui/G||ana
multiaged child groups enthusiastically practice singing
and dancing activities, which provide a place and opportunity for socialization. Below, I discuss how the young G|ui/
G||ana children become involved in these activities.
Song is inseparable from dance for the G|ui/G||ana. In the
G|ui/G||ana language, |{{́ denotes song and dance. Singing
and dancing provide one of the major sources of pleasure for
G|ui/G||ana children. When children gather, they frequently
form a circle and perform a variety of songs and dances.
When children hear and see others engaging in a singing and
dancing activity, they often join the circle one after another
(Takada 2010b). An example is given in Fig. 8.4, taken from
a video clip recorded in Kx’oensakene.
8
Additionally, breastfeeding facilitates hormone production in
mothers. For instance, frequent breastfeeding constitutes a key variable
in maternal gonadal suppression that could account for the long
interbirth interval (Konner and Worthman 1980).
108
A. Takada
a
b
c
d
e
f
Fig. 8.4 Performance of dance steps by a toddler
We focus on Gt, who was 39 months old at the time and
was already introduced in Fig. 8.3. Besides Gt, there were
four teenage girls. A and B formed a circle in a standing
position; C was sitting on the ground while holding Ax, who
was 7 weeks old and was the focal baby in Fig. 8.3; also next
to C, D was also sitting on the ground. Soon, A and B began
rotating, while performing rhythmical dance steps. Seeing
this, Gt also started making dance steps while protruding her
buttocks (Fig. 8.4a). When A saw Gt dancing, she said “Gt,
dance! Gt:, DA::NCE!!” and thereby encouraged her to
dance. Noticing this, Gt briefly stopped making steps and
then started making steps again (Fig. 8.4b). This time she
swung her head while making the steps, whose pattern was
similar to the previous ones (Fig. 8.4c). The teenage girls
began paying attention to Gt’s actions. A instructed Gt,
saying “Gt, look. Turn around and then go over there!”
Then, according to A’s instruction, Gt turned around and
went outside the video frame. Gt came back quickly into the
video frame. Next, in front of D and B, Gt performed her
dance steps in rhythm with the older girls singing (Fig. 8.4d).
All of the older girls were paying attention to Gt’s actions.
Again, Gt turned around and went outside the video frame
(Fig. 8.4e). Soon she came back into the video frame while
dancing, with a smile on her face (Fig. 8.4f).
At the beginning of the above excerpt, except for C who
was watching Gt, the teenage girls did not pay attention to
Gt’s movements. When Gt began to imitate the actions of the
dancing girls, they involved Gt in the singing/dancing activity. Although it is not surprising that at the age of 39 months
Gt could reproduce the demonstrators’ behaviors with the
same goal as that of the demonstrators, it is notable that Gt
imitated not only particular actions but also the common
orientation or “we” intention of the singing/dancing activity.
Gt then repeatedly appeared at the center of the dance circle
and improvised her dance performance by combining various movements of her body (e.g., dance steps, swinging of
her head and arms).
The above dance performance performed by the
multiaged child group that included Gt has much in common
with the dance script that has been practiced by G|ui/G||ana
women for a long time. This dance script is summarized as
follows: the participants form a circle, after which each
participant performs unique dance steps in turn at the center
of the circle, while other participants forming the circle keep
singing songs and clapping their hands. In the above excerpt,
the “we” intention embodied in the particular singing/dancing activity was associated with the culturally formed dance
script developed at the institutional level in G|ui/G||ana
society. That is to say, Gt and the other girls unfolded the
dance script in the course of interactions, where Gt played an
appropriate role in the singing/dancing activity of the
multiaged child group. Notice that, although A’s verbal
8
Education and Learning During Social Situations Among the Central Kalahari San
instruction provided Gt with a key to invoke the dance script,
she did not display any perceivable model of back-and-forth
movements and dance steps that she made at the center of
circle.9 Despite this, Gt was able to do more than what she
saw and what she was told to do (i.e., she was able to
improvise her dance performance). Subsequently she could
make appropriate actions along with the unfolding temporal
horizon of the singing/dancing activity. As such, participation in the singing/dancing activity amplifies reflexive consciousness regarding possible actions in the course of
interactions with reference to the culturally formed dance
script, which is not lodged in the brain of each individual,
but is sustained by the continuous flow of dance
performances.
In other words, the requirement of the dance script assures
the progress of the singing/dancing activity and makes the
temporal structure of the activity projectable. This helps
young children carry out SL’, namely, perceive and become
involved in the sequential organization of the activity without the explicit intention of a particular educator. It should be
remarked that the singing/dancing activity usually comprises
multimodal (e.g., lyrics, rhythms, utterances, gestures, facial
expressions) and multiparty interactions. This brings about
the complex organization of the singing/dancing activity.
The complexity provides young children with a variety of
clues for taking part in the activity, even if they do not fully
understand its entire structure. In addition, the singing/dancing activity renders space meaningful; that is, when the
singing/dancing activity arises, insignificant space is
transformed into meaningful place (e.g., the center of the
circle as the stage of dance steps) through contingent mutual
accommodation among the participants. In brief, participation in the singing/dancing activity provides children with
opportunities for learning and educating through (re)
generating the culturally formed dance script.
8.6
Concluding Remarks
To conclude, I draw a few theoretical implications derived
from the analysis of everyday interactions. In this paper, I
redefine/reoperationalize the uses of SL and IL as learning
that occurs in a social situation (SL’) and as a learning
process that occurs within each individual (IL’). From this
approach, I analyzed two culturally distinctive G|ui/G||ana
social situations in which both SL’ and IL’ occurred.
9
Although it has been said that most hunter-gatherer societies, including
that of the G|ui/G||ana, traditionally do not have a system in which
experienced members introduce mature skills to inexperienced members
in specialized settings, such as school, at the level of institutions, it is not
unusual for experienced members to instruct inexperienced members at
the level of actions, as shown in this excerpt.
109
The analysis clarified the microprocesses by which one
participant in an interaction aligns and affiliates (Stivers
et al. 2011) with other participants during culturally distinctive activities. These dynamics serve as the foundation for
the education and learning inherent in the collaboratively
organized sequences of interactions, by means of which
experienced and inexperienced humans participate in social
situations (Goffman 1964) such as those analyzed above.
Indeed, most collective patterns of human actions are
thought to be shaped by the education and learning that
occur during social situations. In contrast, even the nonhuman great apes, which have highly established cognitive
ability, are rarely observed to engage in cooperative actions
through which an individual shares knowledge with other
individuals and cooperates with them (Tomasello and
Camaioni 1997; Cartmill and Byrne 2010).
The analysis described in this paper also facilitates a
reconsideration of the individualistic perspectives of ability,
one of the basic premises underpinning most approaches to
the study of education and learning. SL’ at its core is not that
one (an individual) acquires ability that is assumed within
the individual and enables him to do something across a
variety of situations, but that one achieves socialization
through accumulating actions that are appropriate at a certain place and time. To accomplish such actions, it is
required that each participant exerts agency and creativity
while taking into consideration the context of interactions
embedded in the particular social situation.
Education and learning that promote appropriate actions
in social situations also function to construct such social
situations and, moreover, to maintain and restructure the
given society. Thus, there exists a recursive link among a
society, social situations that characterize the society, and
learning and education that occur in social situations. Hence,
in various societies, we can recognize movements that try to
promote education and learning, furnish social situations that
are structurally distinctive in the given society, and systematically institutionalize the pattern of learning and education.
This suggests that if the institution related to education and
learning does not function well, it will be difficult to maintain the distinctive social situations, and eventually the
foundations of the given society may suffer a breakdown.
This is what we can actually recognize in Kx’oensakene,
where the school system was introduced by the government,
and San students are often badly beaten by their teachers
who have a Tswana background (Akiyama 2004,
pp. 211–215). In such situations, the indigenous institutions,
which have similar functions to those found in the Western
educational system, do not function well, and subsequently,
the parents sometimes try to rescue their children and
remove them from school. It appears that the original aim
of the government was to integrate the San people into the
majority society and strengthen the unity of the nation state.
To avoid dire consequences contrary to the original aims of
110
the state, the recursive links among practices of learning and
education, social situations in which learning and education
occur, and regional society under favorable educational
conditions must be appreciated and reestablished.
Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude to the government of Botswana for providing us with permission to conduct this
research (OP 46/1 XLII (43)). This work is financially supported by the
JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (S) “Cultural formation of
responsibility in caregiver-child interactions” (Project No. 19672002
headed by Akira Takada), JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research
(A) “Cultural and ecological foundations of education and learning: An
anthropological study on rhythm, imitation, and exchange (Project
No. 24242035 headed by Akira Takada),” and JSPS Grant-in-Aid for
Scientific Research on Innovative Areas “Replacement of Neanderthals
by Modern Humans: Testing Evolutionary Models of Learning (Grant
No. 1201 headed by Takeru Akazawa).”
References
Akiyama H (2004) Ethnography of children in a resettlement camp. In:
Tanaka J, Sato S, Sugawara K, Ohta I (eds) Nomads: living in
African wilderness. Showado, Kyoto, pp 211–215 (in Japanese)
Allison T, Puce A, McCarthy G (2000) Social perception from visual
cues: role of the STS region. Trends Cogn Sci 4:267–278
Althusser L (2014) On the reproduction of capitalism: ideology and
ideological state apparatuses. Verso, London
Ando J (2011) From the viewpoint of educational science. In: Tanabe H
(ed) Proceedings of the 4th general meeting of replacement of
Neanderthals by Homo sapiens. National Institute for Physiological
Sciences, National Institute of Natural Sciences, Aichi, pp 22–23
Aries P (1979) Centuries of childhood: a social history of family life.
Penguin, New York
Asada M, Kuniyoshi Y (2006) Robot intelligence. Iwanami Shoten,
Tokyo (in Japanese)
Baba K (2000) Parenting medicine, vol 2. Tokyo Igakusha, Tokyo
(in Japanese)
Bandura A (1977) Social learning theory. Prentice-Hall, Englewood
Cliffs
Bard KA, Myowa-Yamakoshi M, Tomonaga M, Tanaka M, Costall A,
Matsuzawa T (2005) Group differences in the mutual gaze of
chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Dev Psychol 41:616–624
Barnard A (1992) Hunters and herders of Southern Africa: a comparative ethnography of the Khoisan peoples. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge
Baron-Cohen S (1996) Is there a normal phase of synaesthesia in
development. Psyche 2(27):223–228
Barr RG (1990) The early crying paradox: a modest proposal. Hum Nat
1:355–389
Bloch M (2005) Essays on cultural transmission. Berg, Oxford
Blurton-Jones NG, Hawkes K, O’Connell JF (1996) The global process
and local ecology: how should we explain differences between the
Hadza and the !Kung? In: Kent S (ed) Cultural diversity among
twentieth-century foragers: an African perspective. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 159–187
Bly L (1994) Motor skills acquisition in the first year: an illustrated
guide to normal development. Therapy Skill Builders, Tucson
Bourdieu P (1977) Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge University Press, New York
Bourdieu P, Passeron JC (1990) Reproduction in education, society and
culture. Sage Publications, London
Bril B, Zack M, Nkounkou-Hombessa E (1989) Ethnotheories of
development and education: a view from different cultures. Eur J
Psychol Educ 4:307–318
A. Takada
Bronfenbrenner U (1979) The ecology of human development:
experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press,
Cambridge
Bruner JS (1960) The process of education. Harvard University Press,
Cambridge
Cartmill EA, Byrne RW (2010) Semantics of primate gesture: determining intentional meanings. Anim Cogn 13:793–804
Cole M, Cole SR (1993) The development of children (2nd ed.).
Scientific American Books, New York
Csibra G, Gergely G (2006) Social learning and social cognition: the
case for pedagogy. In: Munakata Y, Johnson MH (eds) Processes of
change in brain and cognitive development. Oxford University
Press, Oxford, pp 249–274
Csibra G, Gergely G (2011) Natural pedagogy as evolutionary adaptation. Philos Trans R Soc B Biol Sci 366:1149–1157
Draper P (1976) Social and economic constraints on child life among
the !Kung. In: Lee RB, DeVore I (eds) Kalahari hunter-gatherers:
studies of the !Kung San and their neighbors. Harvard University
Press, Cambridge, pp 199–217
Enard W, Przeworski M, Fisher SE, Lai CS, Wiebe V, Kitano T,
Monaco AP, Paăaăbo S (2002) Molecular evolution of FOXP2, a
gene involved in speech and language. Nature 418:869–872
Fukushima M (2010) Ecology of learning: risk, experiment, and high
reliability. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo (in Japanese)
Gergely G, Bekkering H, Kiraly I (2002) Rational imitation in preverbal infants. Nature 415(6873):755
Goffman E (1964) The neglected situation. Am Anthropol 66
(6):133–136
Goffman E (1981) Forms of talk. University of Pennsylvania Press,
Philadelphia
Goodwin C (1994) Professional vision. Am Anthropol 96(3):606–633
Goodwin C (2000) Action and embodiment within situated human
interaction. J Pragmat 32:1489–1522
Hames R, Draper P (2004) Women’s work, child care and helpers at the
nest in a hunter-gatherer society. Hum Nat 15(4):319–341
Hanks WF (1991) Foreword. In: Lave J, Wenger E (eds) Situated
learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, pp 13–24
Heritage J (2005) Conversation analysis and institutional talk. In: Fitch
KL, Sanders RE (eds) Handbook of language and social interaction.
Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah
Hutchby I, Moran-Ellis J (eds) (1998) Children and social competence:
arenas of action. Routledge, London
Hutchins E (1983) Understanding micronesian navigation. In:
Gentner D, Stevens A (eds) Mental models. Lawrence Erlbaum,
Mahwah, pp 191–225
Hutchins E (1995) Cognition in the wild. MIT Press, Cambridge
Imamura E (2001) Contemporary childrearing. Ishiyaku Publishers,
Tokyo
Imanaka R (2015) Doing being “child/ adult”: institutionalizing the
place for education in Malinke. Jpn J Cult Anthropol 79(3):264–284
James A (2007) Giving voice to children’s voices: practices and
problems, pitfalls and potentials. Am Anthropol 109(2):261–272
Kaye K (1982) The mental and social life of babies: how parents create
persons. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Konner MJ (1973) Newborn walking: additional data. Science 179:307
Konner MJ (1976) Maternal care, infant behavior and development
among the !Kung. In: Lee RB, DeVore I (eds) Kalahari huntergatherers: studies of the !Kung San and their neighbors. Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, pp 218–245
Konner MJ (1977) Infancy among the Kalahari Desert San. In: Leiderman
PH, Tulkin SR, Rosenfeld A (eds) Culture and infancy: variations in
the human experience. Academic, New York, pp 287–328
Konner MJ (2005) Hunter-gatherer infancy and childhood: the !Kung
and others. In: Hewlett BS, Lamb ME (eds) Hunter-gatherer
childhoods: evolutionary, developmental, and cultural perspectives.
Transaction Publishers, Piscataway, pp 19–64
8
Education and Learning During Social Situations Among the Central Kalahari San
Konner MJ, Worthman C (1980) Nursing frequency, gonadal function,
and birth spacing among !Kung hunter-gatherers. Science
207:788–791
Lancy DF (2008) The anthropology of childhood: cherubs, chattel,
changelings. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Lancy DF, Grove MA (2010) The role of adults in children’s learning.
In: Lancy DF, Bock J, Gaskins S (eds) The anthropology of learning
in childhood. AltaMira Press, Lanham, pp 145–179
Lancy DF, Bock J, Gaskins S (eds) (2010) The anthropology of
learning in childhood. AltaMira Press, Lanham
Lave J (1988) Cognition in practice: mind, mathematics and culture in
everyday life. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Lave J, Wenger E (1991) Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Masataka N (1993) Infant acquisition of language: the ethological
approach. Chuokoronsya, Tokyo (in Japanese)
Mead M (1949) Coming of age in Samoa: a psychological study of
primitive youth for western civilisation. New American Library,
New York
Nakagawa H (2013a) Phonetics and phonology: ||Gana subgroup. In:
Vossen R (ed) The Khoisan languages. Routledge, London, pp 64–71
Nakagawa H (2013b) Syntax: ||Gana subgroup. In: Vossen R (ed) The
Khoisan languages. Routledge, London, pp 394–401
Nakagawa H (2013c) Tonology: ||Gana subgroup. In: Vossen R
(ed) The Khoisan languages. Routledge, London, pp 99–103
Nakahashi W (2011) From the viewpoint of evolutionary models of
learning. In: Tanabe H (ed) Proceedings of the 4th general meeting
of replacement of Neanderthals by Homo sapiens. National Institute
for Physiological Sciences, National Institute of Natural Sciences,
Aichi, pp 16–17
Nishizaka A (2008) Distributed bodies: an essay in ethnomethodological interaction analysis. Keiso Shobo, Tokyo (in Japanese)
Ochs E, Solomon O, Sterponi L (2005) Limitations and transformations
of habitus in child-directed communication. Discourse Stud 7
(4–5):547–583
Omura K (2011) From the viewpoint of cultural anthropology. In: Tanabe
H (ed) Proceedings of the 4th general meeting of replacement of
Neanderthals by Homo sapiens. National Institute for Physiological
Sciences, National Institute of Natural Sciences, Aichi, pp 18–19
Pavlov IP (1927) Conditioned reflexes. Oxford University Press,
Oxford
Piaget J (2001) The psychology of intelligence. Routledge, London
Premack D, Premack A (2003) Original intelligence: unlocking the
mystery of who we are. McGraw-Hill, New York
Quinn N, Mageo JM (eds) (2013) Attachment reconsidered: cultural
perspectives on a western theory. Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Rogoff B (2003) The cultural nature of human development. Oxford
University Press, Oxford
Schegloff EA (2007) Sequence organization in interaction: a primer in
conversation analysis, vol 1. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Skinner BF (1938) The behavior of organisms: an experimental analysis. Appleton-Century, New York
Stivers T, Mondada L, Steensig J (2011) Knowledge, morality and
affiliation in social interaction. In: Stivers T, Mondada L, Steensig
J (eds) The morality of knowledge in conversation. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, pp 3–26
Strathern M (1992) Reproducing the future: essays on anthropology,
kinship and the new reproductive technologies. Routledge, London
Streeck J, Goodwin C, LeBaron C (eds) (2011) Embodied interaction:
language and body in the material world. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge
Super CM (1976) Environmental effects on motor development: the
case of African infant precocity. Dev Med Child Neurol 18:561–567
Super CM, Harkness S (1986) The developmental niche: a conceptualization at the interface of child and culture. Int J Behav Dev
9:545–569
111
Takada A (2002a) Social changes among the Central Kalahari San: the
analysis of population dynamics, subsistence activities, and child
weight. J Afr Stud 60:85–103 (in Japanese)
Takada A (2002b) The meaning of caregiving behaviors among the San
for child development. Jpn J Dev Psychol 13(1):63–77 (in Japanese)
Takada A (2004) Nomadic lifestyle and childrearing: analysis of gymnastic behavior among the Central Kalahari San. In: Tanaka J,
Sato S, Sugawara K, Ohta I (eds) Nomads: living in African wilderness. Showado, Kyoto, pp 228–248 (in Japanese)
Takada A (2005a) Early vocal communication and social institution:
appellation and infant verse addressing among the Central Kalahari
San. Crossroads Lang Interact Cult 6:80–108
Takada A (2005b) Mother-infant interactions among the !Xun: analysis
of gymnastic and breastfeeding behaviors. In: Hewlett BS, Lamb
ME (eds) Hunter-gatherer childhoods: evolutionary, developmental, and cultural perspectives. Transaction Publishers, Piscataway,
pp 289–308
Takada A (2006) Explaining pathways in the Central Kalahari. Senri
Ethnol Stud 70:101–127
Takada A (2008) Recapturing space: production of inter-subjectivity
among the Central Kalahari San. Journ Int J Trav Trav Writ 9
(2):114–137
Takada A (2009) New directions in ethnographic studies on infancy and
infant care. Jpn Psychol Rev 52(1):140–151 (in Japanese)
Takada A (2010a) Changes in developmental trends of caregiver-child
interactions among the San: evidence from the !Xun of Northern
Namibia. Afr Stud Monogr Suppl Iss 40:155–177
Takada A (2010b) Pragmatic constraints for interaction: sequential
organization of imitation activity among the Central Kalahari San.
In: Kimura D, Nakamura M, Takanashi K (eds) Border and bond of
interaction: perspectives from the studies of primate, human, and
conversation. Showado, Kyoto, pp 358–377 (in Japanese)
Takada A (2011a) From the viewpoint of hunter-gatherer studies. In:
Tanabe H (ed) Proceedings of the 4th general meeting of replacement of Neanderthals by Homo sapiens. National Institute for
Physiological Sciences, National Institute of Natural Sciences,
Aichi, pp 20–21
Takada A (2011b) Pre-verbal infant-caregiver interaction. In:
Duranti A, Ochs E, Schieffelin BB (eds) Handbook of language
socialization. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 56–80
Tanaka J (1980) The San: hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari, a study in
ecological anthropology. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo
Tanaka J (1987) The recent changes in the life and society of the
Central Kalahari San. Afr Stud Monogr 7:37–51
Terashima H (2011) Symposium 2 “The reality and problems of social
and individual learning among human beings”. In: Tanabe H
(ed) Proceedings of the 4th general meeting of replacement of
Neanderthals by Homo sapiens. National Institute for Physiological
Sciences, National Institute of Natural Sciences, Aichi, pp 14–15
Tomasello M (1999) The cultural origins of human cognition. Harvard
University Press, Cambridge
Tomasello M (2003) Constructing a language: a usage-based theory of
language acquisition. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Tomasello M (2008) Origins of human communication. MIT Press,
Cambridge
Tomasello M, Camaioni L (1997) A comparison of the gestural communication of apes and human infants. Hum Dev 40:7–24
Tucker B, Young AG (2005) Growing up Mikea: children’s time
allocation and tuber foraging in southwestern Madagascar. In:
Hewlett BS, Lamb ME (eds) Hunter-gatherer childhoods: evolutionary, developmental, and cultural perspectives. Transaction
Publishers, Piscataway, pp 147–171
Wertsch JV (1985) Vygotsky and the social formation of mind. Harvard
University Press, Cambridge
Whiting BB, Whiting JWM (1975) Children of six cultures: a psychocultural analysis. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
9
Constructing Social Learning in Interaction
Among the Baka Hunter-Gatherers
Koji Sonoda
Abstract
This chapter shows how children and adults of the Baka Pygmies in eastern Cameroon
construct social learning. Although the “easygoing” nature of the relationship between
children and adults has been argued, previous hunter-gatherer research has given little
attention to the children’s participation in hunting and gathering activities and the details of
oblique knowledge transmission during these activities. I collected data by video recording
naturally occurring interactions between adults (or adolescents) and children during the
children’s participation in collective hunting, gathering, and other cultural activities such as
butchering animals. The ages of the focal children ranged from 5 to 9 years old.
The findings show that the adults’ and adolescents’ actions contributed to the children’s
building of situation-embedded knowledge. The focal children were able to adopt a social
and cooperative stance toward the activities being performed, and the activities gave them
access to various learning resources (other participants, phrases spoken during an activity,
objects, tools, the immediate environment in which the children participate, etc.). From
these findings, it becomes clear that the knowledge built in every social situation was not a
one-sided endeavor, but rather a collaboration between experts and learners. The cognitive
state and the body positioning of the children were taken into account by adults
(or adolescents) in these learning contexts in order to facilitate the (re)production of
knowledge by the children. This fact leads us to the conclusion that experts’ sensitivity
to learners and the learning contexts where they are situated are distinctive key
characteristics of social learning in humans.
Keywords
“Easygoing” nature Adult-children relationships Social situation Knowledge making
9.1
Introduction
This article investigates how children and adults in a modern
hunter-gatherer group construct social learning. Following
Takada’s work (this volume) on the G|ui/||Gana, particular
attention is paid to the “social situation” (Goffman 1964) in
K. Sonoda (*)
Graduate School of Asian and African Studies, Kyoto University,
Kyoto, Japan
e-mail: ksonoda21@gmail.com
order to illustrate the organization of knowledge and skills as
the targets of learning in the midst of moment-to-moment
interaction. This is also an attempt to provide a view of the
learning behavior of modern hunter-gatherers.
Many hunter-gatherer ethnographers have noted the easygoing nature of the relationship among children, adults, and
adolescents (see Turnbull 1962, 1965; Blurton-Jones and
Konner 1976; Woodburn 1982; Hewlett and Cavalli-Sforza
1986; Kamei 2005; Bird-David 2005; Hewlett et al. 2011;
Terashima 2013). As Bird-David (2005) asserts, children do
not constitute a noticeably separate social group in modern
# Springer Japan 2016
H. Terashima, B.S. Hewlett (eds.), Social Learning and Innovation in Contemporary Hunter-Gatherers,
Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans Series, DOI 10.1007/978-4-431-55997-9_9
113
114
K. Sonoda
hunter-gatherer societies, as children and adults spend much
time together. Although the adults organize work, leisure,
and living spaces, “there is no reason for confining children
or excluding them from certain activities” (Draper 1976,
p. 205). This tendency is also attributed to the cultural
emphasis on egalitarianism. For example, Hewlett and his
colleagues observed that “foragers value autonomy and egalitarianism, so parents, older children or other adults are not
likely to think and feel that they know what is best or better
for a child and are generally unlikely to initiate, direct or
intervene in a child’s social learning” (Hewlett et al. 2011,
p. 1173).
Children’s participation in hunting and gathering
activities also occurs within this easygoing context. The
author frequently observed Baka children participating in
such activities with adults. However, previous ethnographic
research has given little attention to children’s active participation in hunting and gathering activities and the details of
oblique transmission of knowledge about these activities.
among African Pygmy hunter-gatherer societies. This study
supplements this body of work by building an understanding
of how knowledge and learning are socially constructed
within the “easygoing” context adult-children relationships
among Baka foragers and by focusing on learning situations
involving the participation and interaction of multiple actors.
In order to illustrate such dynamics of social learning, we
ground our analysis of face-to-face interaction between
participants in learning situations based on Goffman’s
(1964) work. Goffman (1964, p. 135) claimed that “a social
situation arises whenever two or more individuals find themselves in one another’s immediate presence, and it lasts until
the next-to-last person leaves.” Here, I work from the premise that the social situation continues for as long as knowledge specific to that situation is being produced and
confirmed by the participants. The aim of this article is
thus to show how knowledge is mutually constructed by
children and adults in the course of their interaction in
daily activities.
9.2
9.2.1
Knowledge and Social Learning
Situated learning theory (Lave and Wenger 1991) has had a
wide influence, affecting studies of learning in psychology,
anthropology, and cognitive science. This theory suggests
that knowledge that exists in one’s body, mind, or brain is
also derived from the ongoing interactions embedded in the
immediate environment in which learners participate. In
other words, much of what is learned is specific to the
situation in which it is learned (Anderson et al. 1996).
Marchand (2010) argues that cognitive processes of interpretation are individual, but knowledge-making is social.
Therefore, making knowledge is a dynamic process
“entailing co-ordinated interaction between interlocutors
and practitioners with their total environment” (Marchand
2010, p. S2). In this approach, cognitive ability and learning
environment can be understood to be mutually constituted.
Note that, here, the “environment” is limited to the focal
activity with which participants are engaged (Goodwin
2007).
Previous studies of learning in hunter-gatherer societies
have focused on individuals’ innate learning capacities and
propensities – how and from whom individuals acquire
socially transmitted knowledge. Such studies have
investigated modes (pathways) of transmission (Hewlett
and Cavalli-Sforza 1986) and demonstrated children’s imitation of adult activities (Harako 1980; Kamei 2010;
Turnbull 1962, 1965) and patterns of alloparenting (care
given by non-parents) (Hewlett 1991, 2004; Fouts 2008;
Fouts and Brookshire 2009; Ivey 2000; Tronick
et al. 1992) and physical and emotional proximity (Fouts
2008; Hewlett 1991; Hewlett et al. 2011; Tronick et al. 1992)
The Baka
The Baka hunter-gatherers number between 30,000 and
40,000 (Bahuchet in Hewlett 2014) and inhabit the rain
forests of southeast Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, and
Gabon. Under the influence of the government-imposed
sedentarization program in the 1960s (Hewlett 2000), the
Baka have gradually given up much of their former mobility,
settled in semipermanent villages, and adopted agricultural
subsistence practices. However, hunting and gathering
remains an indispensable part of their livelihood, and they
continue to forage for many forest products, including meat,
yams, nuts, etc., for both cash income and consumption. The
Baka and neighboring farmers have long lived in association
and interact in social and economic settings on a daily basis.
Mainly in the dry season, many Baka men, women, and
children work in the farmers’ fields – planting, weeding,
and harvesting.
All Pygmy hunter-gatherers speak languages related to
those spoken by either current or previous non-huntergatherers neighbors (Bahuchet 2012). No family of Pygmy
languages exists (Bahuchet 1992). The Baka language is
classified with Adamawa-Oubanguien (IA6) branch of
Niger-Congo (Cavalli-Sforza 1986). However, Mayer
(1987) argued that the plural suffixation that some Pygmy
languages share in Gabon may be vestige of an ancestral
Pygmy language. Paulin (2006, 2010) has examined the
impact of changing lifestyles on language use among the
Baka in Gabon, illustrating word borrowing and codeswitching during interactions with non-Baka neighbors.
At least five stages of development have been identified
in the ethnotheories of the Baka: babyhood (dínd
o: 0 to 1 or
9
Constructing Social Learning in Interaction Among the Baka Hunter-Gatherers
2 years of age), infancy (lιɓenda`: 1 to 2–5 years of age),
childhood (yandε: 5–15 years of age), adolescence (wanjɔ
for males before marriage and sia for females before marriage), and adulthood (kobo: all individuals after marriage).1
In this article, “children” (yandε) refers to individuals who
are about 5–10 years of age. Hirasawa (2005) found that
older Baka children (ages 6–10) usually follow their
mother’s requests without protest. Additionally, Boyette
(2013) and Hewlett and colleagues (2011) found that 4–12year-old Aka children in Central Africa form mixed-aged
groups but remain within the visual range of an adult. During
my fieldwork, I observed many activities, such as collective hunting (primarily for giant rats), butchering of game
(giant rats, tree hyraxes, duikers, etc.), gathering
(mushrooms, insect pupae, termites, etc.), and dam and bail
fishing, in which adults and adolescents were frequently
helped by children. Game was butchered primarily by male
adolescents, who were often observed and helped by younger children. Collective hunting was frequently performed
by a wide range of age groups, including adults, adolescent
males and females, and children. Gathering and collective
bail fishing were performed by females, but these activities
were watched and partially engaged in by young children.
For Baka children, experience of these activities can be
characterized as what Rogoff (2003) referred to as “guided
participation.” Children’s participation in collective hunting,
gathering, and other cultural activities such as butchering
animals is structured by their adult and adolescent
companions. In all of these cultural activities, for example,
simplified tasks are divided and given to the children, objects
are positioned so as to be in view of children, and older
companions are open for responding to children’s actions.
9.2.2
Methodology
My data consisted of videotaped recordings of actual
conversations that occurred during my stay at one of the
Baka people’s camps and their village. The videos captured
total of 799 min of interaction among adults, adolescents,
and children in the course of their daily hunting, gathering,
and leisure/play activities.
Although most of the verbal exchanges discussed herein
were conducted in the Baka language,2 some included several French words and words taken from neighboring
farmers. Transcripts3 were made in collaboration with two
1
The age distribution was based on Kamei’s (2010) work.
The spelling of Baka words is based on Brisson’s (2010) dictionary.
3
Symbols used in transcripts are modified from Schegloff (2007). A
colon (:) indicates lengthening of the current sound. A dash (-) marks
the sudden cutoff of the current sound. Equal signs (¼) indicates a
2
115
Baka translators who were well acquainted with camp
members. The interaction analysis was based primarily on
the “conversation analysis” technique developed by
Goodwin and Heritage (1990). This technique treats talk as
an action and focuses on how basic participant roles such as
speaker, hearer, and overhearer are categorized, constituted,
and deployed, clarifying how the recipients of action operate
as active participants. This technique also focuses on the
multifaceted ways in which participation facilitates a further
understanding about actions in which others are engaged
(Goodwin and Heritage 1990). Children engage in social
learning via mutual cooperation with adults and adolescents.
Descriptions of this process improve our understanding of
situation-embedded knowledge that children achieve as a
result of support from adults and adolescents.
9.3
Results
9.3.1
Entrance into Social Situation
I first illustrate how adults and adolescents coordinate their
actions when children enter social situations involving ongoing activities. The following examples also show that children learn several “stances.”
Example 1. Social Stance The following exchange
occurred during a hunting activity in the forest. A boy –
A (7 years old) – started to look for a rat’s burrow in
response to his mother’s (M) request. Hunting the giant rat
(Cricetomys emini, called gbe` in Baka) involves three steps.
First, the oldest person in the party positions him/herself at a
burrow found in the forest. Then, he/she instructs the others
about the direction of the tunnel and the location of another
burrow entry where the rat may emerge. Following these
instructions, the rest of the party, including young children,
spread out to find other burrows. Finally, the leader (i.e., the
person positioned close to the burrow in the first step) fills
the burrow with smoke to kill the rat.
continuous flow from prior talk. Comments (e.g., descriptions of relevant nonvocal behavior) are given within double parentheses: (()).
Numbers within single parentheses (e.g., (3.0)) mark silences in
seconds and tenths of a second. A degree sign ( ) indicates that the
conversation that follows is being spoken in a low volume. Square
brackets ([) connecting talk by different speakers mark the point
where overlap begins. An up arrow (") marks an increase in the pitch
of the voice. Talk between “more-than” and “less-than” symbols has
been compressed (><) or slowed (<>). Stressed words have been
underlined (_). (.hhh) indicates inbreathe, in proportion to number of
“h”s inserted, and (hhh) indicates exhalation, in proportion to the
number of “h”s inserted.
116
K. Sonoda
Example 1 shows one of the ways in which young children enter a social situation with the help of surrounding
adults (Fig. 9.1). Approximately ten people participated in
this hunting expedition, and M and A were a short distance
from the main party. M was rearranging items that she had
gathered on the way, such as mushrooms and chrysalises,
and A was using a machete to cut down a tree.
A
child. It is also noteworthy that M was looking in the direction of the burrow again, just as she did when she summoned
P. This shift entailed a change in his social stance to one
that mirrored that of an adolescent. Furthermore, the words
“I say, A” were uttered rapidly, so that the child would heed
the request before the rat emerged.
Consider the utterance “Y(ou)” in line 9. In the original
text, M said ngamo`, an emphatic way to express “you”.4
This draws attention to the imperative sentence: “come to
stan-(d).” M’s statement “Another old burrow:: wa:s there:
eh".” in line 10 was spoken with a rising intonation. By
ending her turn with “eh",” M asked A a question about
whether he was going to the designated place in a way that
presupposed that he indeed was going to go there. This
action skillfully garnered the child’s next utterance: “(.)
Mam where#” in line 11, which constitutes other repair
initiation.5 After using these words to address M, A began
to run. M’s change in the form of address confirms that
A had access to a burrow and led the child to ask about the
location of the burrow.
Example 2. Cooperative Stance A cooperative stance is
“the visible display that one is organizing one’s body toward
others and a relevant environment in just the ways necessary
to sustain and help construct the activities in progress”
(Goodwin 2007, p. 70). The exchange in this example
occurred immediately following a rat hunt, when the hunters
resumed foraging. A father (F) was talking to himself about
the rat hunt while walking slowly to his child (C, 5 years old)
when the child saw a pupa on a branch above (Fig. 9.2).
M
Fig. 9.1 M asks A to keep watch on a burrow
In line 1, M asks P, a female adolescent, to watch another
burrow that M found because other participants, including
her, were not spreading out. M’s request was not heeded, as
these participants continued to chat and did not move. In line
8, M attracts A’s attention by saying, “I say” to change her
focus. This drawing of attention was followed by the use of
A as a form of address. It should be noted that the request for
attention was redirected from P, an adolescent, to A, a young
4
mo` is the normal expression in Baka.
There are at least five types of repair initiation, in which a speaker
corrects an earlier mistaken utterance. The type occurring here consists
of “the question words who, where, when” (Schegloff et al. 1977,
p. 367).
5