Abstract
To consider the evolutionary basis of modern humans’ learning ability and thereupon build a hypothesis of the key differentiating factors in learning abilities of Neanderthals and modern humans, this study examines the sociocultural backgrounds of Inuit adults’ behavior of teasing children and examines the purpose behind the behavior.
First, I introduce a hypothesis to account for the difference in learning ability between Neanderthals and modern humans, which I have proposed on the basis of Tomasello’s model of cumulative cultural evolution and Bateson’s model of learning evolution. I then examine examples of Inuit adults’ teasing of children to understand the characteristics of teasing. Next, I situate their teasing in a sociocultural background, demonstrating that teasing functions as a device for pre-learning, which is the basis for observational learning and creative invention. Finally, using the findings of these analyses, I propose that the most important differentiating factor in learning ability between Neanderthals and modern humans is not in biological ability but in sociality, i.e., the way to collectively generate and actively be involved in sociocultural institutions.
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Notes
- 1.
Inuit adults’ teasing of children seems to be different from “lani-mani (to make frightened, to scare, to frighten) children” presented in Yasmine Musharbash’s Chap. 14 in this volume in that, as I show in this article, the former is institutionalized in the life cycle and functions as the device for pre-learning but the latter does not. However, it remains to be scrutinized whether lani-mani is also institutionalized and functions as the device for pre-learning or not and whether the institutionalized device for pre-learning like Inuit adults’ teasing of children is a universal panhuman device or not.
- 2.
As Sterelny (2012) pointed out on the basis of the recent archaeological findings, the stone tool kits of Neanderthals have been turned out to be more complex than ever presumed: for example, composite tools such as spears with a stone head believed to have originated with them were discovered. As I showed elsewhere (Omura 2014b, 2015), however, it is possible to produce such composite tools using the techniques based on only the ability for cultural learning without the ability to objectify: for example, some component processes are added to either the outset or end of the whole sequence of processes already established and automatically operated as a conventional technique, with the result that composite tools like spear with a stone head are invented without objectifying and manipulating the sequence of processes, although in this case the productivity is more limited than in the case where the sequence is objectified, disassembled, manipulated, and reassembled on the basis of the ability to objectify. It can be inferred that this might be the case in some complex stone-crafting techniques of Neanderthals. If so, it is likely that, as I point out at the end of this article, the cultural tradition and social institution different from the ones of modern humans were evolved in the case of Neanderthals, though it remains to be explored what kind of culture and institution were evolved. It also remains to be explored whether Homo preceding Neanderthals acquired the ability to objectify or not, and if they did, to what extent they did.
- 3.
The characteristics presented in this section are not the actual account given by the Inuit. It is derived from my observation of Inuit’s discourses, practices, and interactions with and attitude toward their children. Although Briggs (1998, p. 8) describes how she has “been increasingly plagued by the problem of what to call them,” all of my Inuit mentors and friends commonly apply the term “teasing” in English or uirihaiRuq (teasing) in Inuktitut (Inuit language) to this type of interactions between adults and children. They also comment that it is primarily for fun but consequently has the effect of educating children.
- 4.
This mechanism of teasing has something to do with “revitalization movements” composed of “cognitive dissonance” and “mazeway resynthesis” in culture change, discussed by Wallace (e.g., 1970, 2003). I would like to further consider the role of adults’ teasing of children in the process of sociocultural change and reproduction in Inuit society. I owe this idea for my future research project to the comment from Professor Barry S. Hewlett.
- 5.
As Paradise and Rogoff (2009) illustrated, the form of informal learning by observing and pitching in with everyday activities is “a panhuman cultural practice, comfortable for and well suited for human learning of all kinds” (Paradise and Rogoff 2009, p. 132), one example of which is the Inuit observational and collaborative learning presented in this section. One of the most important future tasks of anthropological studies must be to elucidate the detailed mechanism of this form of learning. As proposed by some anthropologists studying about knowing practices, such as Marchand (2010) and Downey (2010), we must be required to collaborate with cognitive science, philosophy of mind, psychology, neuroscience, biology, medicine, and so on, to accomplish this task, that is, to elucidate the process of informal learning. This is because it entails ecological and sociocultural “interaction between interlocutors and practitioners with their total environment” (Marchand 2010, p. S1). Thus, we have to think “about human knowledge through exploration of the interdependence of nurture with nature; and more specifically the interdependence of minds, bodies, and environment” (Marchand 2010, p. S2). In other words, as Downey (2010) proposed, we have to consider this form of learning as “enskilment,” that is, the patient transformation of the novice, the change of his or her muscles, attention patterns, motor control, neurological systems, emotional reactions, interaction patterns, and top-down self-management techniques” (Downey 2010, p. 36).
- 6.
It remains to be explored whether the device for pre-learning is a panhuman device or not and, if it is universal in modern humans, what forms it takes in each setting. In addressing these questions, we have to bio-culturally approach to them because, as Downey (2010) demonstrated, it inevitably affects the organic body. It also remains to be investigated how the body of Inuit children is forged as the matrix of two attitudes, a positive attitude toward learning and the ideal attitude of a real Inuit, through teasing as a device for pre-learning.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Professor Hideaki Terashima and Professor Barry S. Hewlett for precious comments on early drafts of this article. I would also like to thank Enago (www.enago.jp) for the English language review.
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Omura, K. (2016). Sociocultural Cultivation of Positive Attitudes Toward Learning: Considering Differences in Learning Ability Between Neanderthals and Modern Humans from Examining Inuit Children’s Learning Process. In: Terashima, H., Hewlett, B.S. (eds) Social Learning and Innovation in Contemporary Hunter-Gatherers. Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans Series. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55997-9_23
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