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It is known that infant‐directed speech (IDS) plays a key role in language development. Previous research, however, has also identified significant variability across societies in terms of how often IDS occurs. For example, some studies report very little IDS in non‐western, small‐scale societies – including children growing up in small‐scale societies in Tanna, Vanuatu. This is surprising given that IDS is widely assumed as a common feature of human caregiving based on research conducted in urbanised populations which are more well‐studied. Here, we propose that IDS is only one of a suite of important caregiving behaviours that are produced during interactions with infants, which may vary by culture, perhaps being replaced by other, non‐verbal infant‐directed behaviours (IDB). We will examine previously collected data consisting of 94 semi‐structured 10‐min video observations of caregivers and their 18–24 month‐old children in rural Tanna, Vanuatu and urban Vancouver, Canada to identify and compare the proportion of time caregivers spend engaging in IDS and IDB during these interactions, both within and between societies. We define IDS as caregiver speech or vocalisations during the interaction with the infant, and we define IDB as non‐verbal behaviours that are produced with the infant during the interaction. This study aims to take a step towards a more generalised understanding of language development in children, moving beyond the urban and western societies in which our understanding of development is currently based, and the predicted results will aid in recognising different developmental pathways within multi‐cultural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is substantial evidence pointing towards a rise in mental health problems among young people worldwide. A recent survey showed that, compared to older age groups, Faroese young people aged 18–24 struggled the most with symptoms of psychological stress, depression, and loneliness. They also worried more about their economic and housing conditions compared to their older counterparts. The reasons for the higher degree of young people´s mental health challenges, however, remain unclear. The aim of this study was therefore to gain insight into the contributors to young people´s mental health. Six semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted with 28 people aged 18–34. Through the thematic analysis, three main themes were identified: 1. Too many options, 2. High expectations and 3. Limiting small-scale living. We interpret these themes as being intricately connected to the recent societal changes, and we address the importance of understanding young people´s mental health considering this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are numerous reports on the subjecting of children to various forms of violence as adisciplinary method throughout history, from ancient to modern times. Punishing children using physical violence, as a method of acquiring compliance with various social norms dictated by adults, has been continuously practiced during recorded humanity. The current international standards on children’s rights that require protection against violence have emerged in the past few decades as a societal response to the quasi-universal use of corporal punishment in modern societies. By contrast, in their empirical fieldwork done since the XIXth century in many hunter-gatherer societies, the ethnographers have found that most of these societies are characterized by the absence or the exceptional use of corporal punishment against children. In this regard, one area of interest consists in the significant differences in child discipline between hunter-gatherer and agrarian societies. Therefore, this analysis aims to explore variations in parental attitudes towards child-rearing in these two types of small-scale societies, integrating a historical perspective and taking into account variables such as indulgence towards children’s behaviour, responsiveness to children’s needs, affection towards children, children’s autonomy, father involvement and their correlations with the absence or presence of corporal punishment. For ethnographic information, I used Yale University’s eHRAF database, from which 601 ethnographic texts on 139 small-scale societies (85 hunter-gatherer societies and 54 agrarian societies) were extracted, coded, and analysed. Interpretation of the data indicates that hunter-gatherer societies have positive, non-punitive and more responsive parenting approaches to children’s needs, lacking physical punishment, while agrarian societies have scores indicating the presence of violent methods of discipline and parenting practices focused on submission and punishment. All five parental attitudes included in the analysis scored higher in egalitarian societies than in agrarian ones. The most pronounced disparity between the two types of cultures is related to the indulgent nature of parental care. In addition, attitudes of emotional neglect and reduced expression of affection towards children and limited father involvement in child rearing correlate very strongly with the choice of physical punishments for child discipline. The findings of this analysis highlight the importance of considering the historical and cultural context of parent-child interactions and cultural determinants in choosing positive parenting methods and provide a historical-anthropological perspective for promoting the normative prohibition of all forms of violence against children.

Anthropologists have long studied how small-scale societies manage climate variation. Here, we investigate how Yucatec Maya subsistence farmers respond to climate stress, and the ways in which market integration may enhance or disturb response stategies. Using information on harvest returns, climate perceptions, household economics and helping networks, modelling results show that as farmers rely more on market inputs (e.g. seed, tractors, fertilizer) for a successful yield, the reasons given for a bad harvest shift from climate variables to access to quality inputs. We also find that social and economic diversification is key to mediating a household's experience of climate and market shocks. The Maya are astute stewards of climate knowledge, and have effective social and economic means to mitigate potential fluctuations in food availability. In the transition from a subsistence to a market integrated economy, these traditional strategies become strained. Reliance on market inputs forges a more rigid food production system that conflicts with the diversity and flexibility on which traditional strategies depend to manage climate variation. Moving forward, the best policies would be those that facilitate maintaining an equal footing in both a subsistence maize economy, while incorporating new market opportunities. This article is part of the theme issue 'Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Musculoskeletal pain is the most debilitating human health condition. Neurophysiological pain mechanisms are highly conserved and promote somatic maintenance and learning to avoid future harm. However, some chronic pain might be more common owing to mismatches between modern lifestyles and traits that originally evolved under distinct premodern conditions. To inform assumptions about factors affecting chronic pain vulnerability prior to industrialization, we assess pain prevalence, perceived causes, and predictors among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists. Habitual subsistence work is the primary reported cause of pain throughout life for both sexes, and pain is more common with age, especially in the back, and for those with more musculoskeletal problems. Sex differences in pain are relatively weak, and we find no association between women's reproductive history and pain, contrary to the hypothesis that reproduction causes women's greater pain susceptibility. Age-standardized current pain prevalence is 1.7–8.2 times higher for Tsimane than other select populations, and Tsimane chronic pain prevalence is within the range of variation observed elsewhere. Chronic low back pain is not a 'mismatch disease' limited to post-industrialized populations. Hominin musculoskeletal changes supporting bipedalism probably imposed health costs, which, after millions of years of evolution, remain an epidemiological burden that may be exacerbated by modern conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women and girls cooperate with each other across many domains and at many scales. However, much of this information is buried in the ethnographic record and has been overlooked in theoretic constructions of the evolution of human sociality and cooperation. The assumed primacy of male bonding, hunting, patrilocality and philopatry has dominated the discussion of cooperation without balanced consideration. A closer look at the ethnographic record reveals that in addition to cooperative childcare and food production, women and girls collectively form coalitions, have their own cooperative political, ceremonial, economic and social institutions, and develop female-based exchange and support networks. The numerous ethnographic examples of female cooperation urge reconsideration of gender stereotypes and the limits of female cooperation. This review brings together theoretic, cross-cultural and cross-lifespan research on female cooperation to present a more even and empirically supported view of female sociality. Following the lead from trends in evolutionary biology and sexual selection theory, the hope going forward is that the focus shifts from rote characterizations of sex differences to highlighting sources of variation and conditions that enhance or constrain female cooperative engagement. This article is part of the theme issue 'Cooperation among women: evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Central Western Argentina (CWA), the Provincial Inca pottery has been the most ubiquitous indicator of Inca influence and expansionism during the fifteenth–sixteenth centuries. This paper presents a petrographic analysis of thin sections of ceramic samples from the Inca and local sites located throughout CWA, in order to contribute to the study of the provenance of raw materials, technology, and distribution networks. The results point to a heterogeneous petrographic composition, consistent with a decentralized production model. However, major uniformity in pastes, and a higher correlation with the local geology, is identified in two sectors: the Uspallata Valley and Southern San Juan. Some innovations in production practices (such as grog and volcanic glass inclusions) are also noteworthy, probably in relation to the emergence of new socio-ethnic identities. This information is compared with their archaeological background to contribute to the discussion of the organization of pottery production during the Inca dominance of the state’s southern frontier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maasai and other Maa-speaking pastoralists in Kenya and Tanzania have a risk-pooling system that they refer to by their word for the umbilical cord (osotua). Gifts from one osotua partner to another are contingent on the recipient's need and do not create any debt. We refer to such gifts as need-based transfers. Maa-speakers also have a system of debt-based transfers (esile) in which gifts must be repaid. We designed an agent-based model to compare the impacts on herd survival of need-based and debt-based transfers on networks of varying topologies and sizes and with different degrees of temporal correlation of shocks felt by the agents. We found that the use of need-based rather than debt-based transfers, greater network modularity, greater network size, and decreased correlation among shocks were associated with increased rates of survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological research in small-scale societies is crucial for what it stands to tell us about human psychological diversity. However, people in these communities, typically Indigenous communities in the global South, have been underrepresented and sometimes misrepresented in psychological research. Here I discuss the promises and pitfalls of psychological research in these communities, reviewing why they have been of interest to social scientists and how cross-cultural comparisons have been used to test psychological hypotheses. I consider factors that may be undertheorized in our research, such as political and economic marginalization, and how these might influence our data and conclusions. I argue that more just and accurate representation of people from small-scale communities around the world will provide us with a fuller picture of human psychological similarity and diversity, and it will help us to better understand how this diversity is shaped by historical and social processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the initial steps in the domestication process of the wolf. We discuss the human-initiated model in which wolf pups were brought to camp sites by male hunters and cared for by nursing women. A good relation between the more sociable and playful pups and the women and their children likely formed affiliative bonds and led to the survival of such pups into maturity. Some of these animals could have reproduced and delivered at least one litter. A selection on the behaviour of subsequent generations could ultimately have led to Palaeolithic dogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political philosophers have long drawn explicitly or implicitly on claims about the ways in which human behaviour is shaped by interactions within society. These claims have usually been based on introspection, anecdotes or casual empiricism, but recent empirical research has informed a number of early views about human nature. We focus here on five components of such views: (1) what motivates human beings; (2) what constraints our natural and social environments impose upon us; (3) what kind of society emerges as a result; (4) what constitutes a fulfilling life; and (5) what collective solutions can improve the outcome. We examine social contract theory as developed by some early influential political philosophers (Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau), who viewed the social contract as a device to compare the ‘natural’ state of humans with their behaviour in society. We examine their views in the light of recent cross-cultural empirical research in the evolutionary social sciences. We conclude that social contract theorists severely underestimated human behavioural complexity in societies lacking formal institutions. Had these theorists been more informed about the structure and function of social arrangements in small-scale societies, they might have significantly altered their views about the design and enforcement of social contracts.

Although subsistence hunting is cross-culturally an activity led and practiced mostly by men, a rich body of literature shows that in many small-scale societies women also engage in hunting in varied and often inconspicuous ways. Using data collected among two contemporary forager-horticulturalist societies facing rapid change (the Tsimane' of Bolivia and the Baka of Cameroon), we compare the technological and social characteristics of hunting trips led by women and men and analyze the specific socioeconomic characteristics that facilitate or constrain women's engagement in hunting. Results from interviews on daily activities with 121 Tsimane' (63 women and 58 men) and 159 Baka (83 women and 76 men) show that Tsimane' and Baka women participate in subsistence hunting, albeit using different techniques and in different social contexts than men. We also found differences in the individual and household socioeconomic profiles of Tsimane' and Baka women who hunt and those who do not hunt. Moreover, the characteristics that differentiate hunter and non-hunter women vary from one society to the other, suggesting that gender roles in relation to hunting are fluid and likely to change, not only across societies, but also as societies change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certain ceramic practices along ca. 1000 years have shaped a technological tradition in the north and center of Mendoza, within which, however, variability can be recognized. We present a characterization of the small-scale societies pottery of various sites located between Mendoza and Tunuyán rivers. From studies on pastes, manufacturing traces, ceramic morphology and decoration, we seek to contribute to the knowledge of manufacturing practices and the production, consumption and exchange context. Similarities and particularities are recognized at various stages of the ceramic production sequence that suggest some versatility in the manufacturing modes for the achievement of relatively homogeneous objects. The causes of this variability can be multiple, but we suppose the elaboration of vessels at the level of the domestic units, by diverse potters with different degrees of expertise and variable learning processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers insights into the organization of Scioto Hopewell craft production and examines the implications of this organization through the lens of ritual economy. We present a novel analysis of investigations at the North 40 site, concluding that it is a craft production site located on the outskirts of the renowned Mound City Group. High-resolution landscape-scale magnetic survey revealed a cluster of three large structures and two rows of associated pits; one of the buildings and three of the pits were sampled in excavations. Evidence from the North 40 site marks this as the best-documented Scioto Hopewell craft production site. Mica, chert, and copper were crafted here in contexts organized outside the realm of domestic household production and consumption. Other material remains from the site suggest that crafting was specialized and embedded in ceremonial contexts. This analysis of the complex organization of Scioto Hopewell craft production provides grounds for further understanding the elaborate ceremonialism practiced by Middle Woodland (AD 1–400) societies and adds to the known complexity of craft production in small-scale societies. Furthermore, this article contributes to a growing body of literature demonstrating the utility of ritual economy as a framework for approaching the sociality of small-scale societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geoarchaeological studies of landscapes immediately adjacent to archaeological sites can contribute information on the direct impact of small-scale societies on their associated landscapes. This direct connection allows us to understand aspects of the motivations, economic decision-making and agricultural strategies and how they affected local site catchments. The origin and spreading of farming communities onto the Loess Plateau of northern China provides a good example of this. We recorded sediment profiles that were immediately adjacent to the site of Huizui in the Yiluo River Basin. Here we identified evidence for human land-use beginning with the early Mid-Holocene deposits which are consistent with stable hillslope soils, indicating that the first mixed forager-millet farmers of the Peiligang Neolithic had a very light ecological footprint on the landscape. This is in contrast to the later middle Neolithic Yangshao Period farmers. Sediments from the Yangshao Period revealed paleolandscape and phytolith evidence for the earliest Neolithic paddy farming well outside of the natural habitat of wild rice. In addition to evidence for massive deforestation and soil erosion, a 15 m deep sediment sequence containing sets of gravels (beginning ca. 7200 cal BP) and gleyed soils dating from ca. 6600 cal BP, contained rice phytoliths, archaeological waste suggesting manuring, and micromorphological data indicating trampling. These signs of intensive landscape management go hand-in-hand with rapidly increasing social complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though subsistence hunting in tropical rainforests contributes to local food security and livelihoods, it also constitutes a major challenge to wildlife conservation. In this paper we examine different hunting practices of contemporary Tsimane', an Amazonian indigenous society native to Bolivia, and discuss their potential impact on wildlife. We also explore whether such different practices relate to greater integration into the national society and the market economy. Between 2009 and 2010, we conducted interviews with 344 Tsimane' adult men from 40 villages to collect information on their 1) hunting engagement, success, effort, offtake and prey profile and 2) their individual level of integration into the national society and the market economy. Overall, 71% of the interviewed men engaged in subsistence hunting albeit using different practices and achieving different outcomes. We used hierarchical cluster analysis to classify hunters into four groups according to their engagement and success in hunting. Two large groups of hunters had a diversified prey profile and targeted resilient species, whereas the two remaining groups were smaller, displayed high levels of offtake and efficiency, and targeted mainly ungulates and primates. We argue that the potential impact of expert hunters on wildlife is higher because they target more vulnerable species. Our results also suggest that there are no clear pathways relating hunting strategies and individual levels of integration into the national society and the market economy. However, our study provides evidence of how rapid and increasing contact with mainstream society affects hunting and subsistence livelihoods of contemporary indigenous peoples, posing severe potential impacts on biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial introduces the special feature of Ecology and Society entitled Small-Scale Societies and Environmental Transformations: Coevolutionary Dynamics. The contributions to this feature explore coevolutionary dynamics developed between small-scale societies and environmental features and the larger-scale effects of these interactions in spatial and chronological terms. Acknowledging the importance of small-scale societies in our evolutionary past and nowadays, contributions to this issue use insights from both archaeological and anthropological case studies, concepts, and methods. This editorial introduces the contributions in three different ways. We start by reviewing the use of the term "small-scale society" in the literature. Then, we briefly examine the concept of "co-evolutionary dynamics" by providing examples of how the process operates between past and present small-scale societies and their surrounding environments. In the last section, we introduce each of the papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food sharing behavior is a widely observed phenomenon, and it draws attention of scholars interested in finding both proximate and ultimate explanations of such practices. In the current study, we focused on possible socio-economic and environmental food-sharing predictors: type of economy (i.e., immediate-return vs. delayed-return) and typical diet composition (i.e., proportion of proteins and carbohydrates in typical daily caloric intake). We investigated whether members of three societies from Tanzania (N = 177), namely hunter-gatherers (Hadza), pastoralists (Datoga), and agriculturalists (Iraqw) differ with regard to food-sharing patterns in the Dictator Game and reactions to violations of the food-sharing norms in the Ultimatum Game. We found that neither the type of economy nor the typical diet influenced our outcomes. The results indicated, however, that food sharing behavior was positively predicted by certain individual-level characteristics: people of higher strength and lower body fat shared more food, and women were more willing to share food than men. • We tested if typical diet composition and economy type affected food-sharing practices. • Our study comprised three societies from Tanzania (Hadza, Datoga and Iraqw). • Society type did not affect food-sharing. • Individuals of higher strength and lower body fat shared more food. • Women were more willing to share food than men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global environmental change (GEC) is an increasingly discussed phenomenon in the scientific literature as evidence of its presence and impacts continues to grow. Yet, while the documentation of GEC is becoming more readily available, local perceptions of GEC-- particularly in small-scale societies--and preferences about how to deal with it, are still largely overlooked. Local knowledge and perceptions of GEC are important in that agents make decisions (including on natural resource management) based on individual perceptions. We carried out a systematic literature review that aims to provide an exhaustive state-of-the-art of the degree to and manner in which the study of local perceptions of change are being addressed in GEC research. We reviewed 126 articles found in peer-reviewed journals (between 1998 and 2014) that address local perceptions of GEC. We used three particular lenses of analysis that are known to influence local perceptions, namely (i) cognition, (ii) culture and knowledge, and (iii) possibilities for adaptation.We present our findings on the geographical distribution of the current research, the most common changes reported, perceived drivers and impacts of change, and local explanations and evaluations of change and impacts. Overall, we found the studies to be geographically biased, lacking methodological reporting, mostly theory based with little primary data, and lacking of indepth analysis of the psychological and ontological influences in perception and implications for adaptation. We provide recommendations for future GEC research and propose the development of a "meta-language" around adaptation, perception, and mediation to encourage a greater appreciation and understanding of the diversity around these phenomena across multiple scales, and improved codesign and facilitation of locally relevant adaptation and mitigation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In small-scale societies children have great access to observing adult roles and this is often reflected in their play, however very few empirical studies of work-themed play have been conducted despite substantial implications that this type of play has for social learning. The current study describes the work-themed play patterns of 1 1/2- to 4-year-old Aka and Bofi foragers and Bofi farmers in Central Africa and examines the extent to which subsistence economy, age, and gender predicted how often children were observed engaging in work-themed play and characteristics of workthemed play. Overall, farmer children engaged in more work-themed play than forager children. Very few gender differences were observed in work-themed play. Age and subsistence economy predicted tendencies for children to be near adults while engaged in work-themed play and to use objects in their work-themed play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although archaeological study of ritual as performance has garnered increasing attention in recent years, such research has primarily focused on large-scale, complex societies and, therefore, on the relation of performance to politics and power. In contrast, this paper explores archaeological assessment of public performance within small-scale societies, considering especially the significance of specific practices to social integration, identity, and historicity. This analysis is informed by emerging interdisciplinary theory on ritual, dramatization, and performance, and draws on archaeological evidence of cyclic communal mourning rites in coastal southern California that reveal aspects of performance including item manufacture, burning, pigmentation, sequential fragmentation, and structured deposition in ‘persistent places’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the past century, the fields of archaeology and anthropology have produced a number of different theoretical approaches and a substantial body of data aimed at ways to understand hunter-gatherer, horticultural, and agropastoral societies. This review considers four recent edited volumes on foraging and food-producing societies. These books deal in innovative ways with a broad array of issues, including transitions in human prehistory and history, mobility, land use, sharing, technology, social leveling strategies, leadership, and the formation of social hierarchies. Small-scale societies include hunter-gatherers or foragers, while middle-range societies may include complex hunter-gatherer (ones with storage and delayed return systems), horticultural, and agropastoral societies, some of them with institutionalized leadership, status hierarchies, and differential access to power and resources. An important set of themes in these books includes diversity in adaptations to complex social and natural environments, the significance of (1) matter, (2) energy, and (3) information in small-scale and middle-range societies on several continents, the persistence of foraging, and the development of inequality. The roles of sharing, exchange, and leadership in small-scale and middle-range societies are explored, as are explanations for social, economic, and political transformations among groups over time and across space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Stable oxygen isotopes (δ18O) from human bone apatite from central western Argentina (30º-37ºS latitude) were analysed to understand changes in human residential mobility during the Late Holocene. This region contains evidence for the use of domesticated plants over the last 2000 years ( Zea mays, Cucurbita sp. and Phaseolus sp., among others), and previous models of prehistoric occupation have suggested a distinct change in mobility and population movement associated with their incorporation. The importance of these domesticates also seems to have varied geographically, being greater in the northern part of the region and declining as one moves south toward the limit with Patagonia. Expectations about patterns of residential mobility have varied accordingly. To better evaluate these models, we analysed carbonate δ18O from the bone apatite of 71 individuals with radiocarbon dates spanning the last 6000 years. Given the existing evidence, we expected to see temporal and geographic differences in their oxygen isotope values associated with changes in residential mobility and the incorporation of different sources of drinking water available within the region. These expectations were not met. Significant variations were seen across all samples compared, both temporal and geographic, with no discernible differences among them. The data suggest that populations throughout the area were all highly mobile, and that this did not change with the incorporation of domesticates. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the special feature of Ecology and Society entitled "Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Global Environmental Change. The special feature addresses two main research themes. The first theme concerns the resilience of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (hereafter TEK) and the conditions that might explain its loss or persistence in the face of global change. The second theme relates to new findings regarding the way in which TEK strengthens community resilience to respond to the multiple stressors of global environmental change. Those themes are analyzed using case studies from Africa, Asia, America and Europe. Theoretical insights and empirical findings from the studies suggest that despite the generalized worldwide trend of TEK erosion, substantial pockets of TEK persist in both developing and developed countries. A common trend on the studies presented here is hybridization, where traditional knowledge, practices, and beliefs are merged with novel forms of knowledge and technologies to create new knowledge systems. The findings also reinforce previous hypotheses pointing at the importance of TEK systems as reservoirs of experiential knowledge that can provide important insights for the design of adaptation and mitigation strategies to cope with global environmental change. Based on the results from papers in this feature, we discuss policy directions that might help to promote maintenance and restoration of living TEK systems as sources of social-ecological resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Pipe cleaner play did not improve BaYaka and Bondongo children's hook task success. • Children innovated novel uses for pipe cleaners outside the experimental context. • Prior relevant experience may improve children's performance during innovation tasks. • Combining observations and experiments improves our understanding of tool innovation. Tool innovation has played a crucial role in human adaptation. Yet, this capacity seems to arise late in development. Before 8 years of age, many children struggle to solve the hook task, a common measure of tool innovation that requires modification of a straight pipe cleaner into a hook to extract a prize. Whether these findings are generalizable beyond postindustrialized Western children remains unclear. In many small-scale subsistence societies, children engage in daily tool use and modification, experiences that theoretically could enhance innovative capabilities. Although two previous studies found no differences in innovative ability between children from Western and small-scale subsistence societies, these did not account for the latter's inexperience with pipe cleaners. Thus, the current study investigated how familiarity with pipe cleaners affected hook task success in 132 Congolese BaYaka foragers (57 girls) and 59 Bondongo fisher–farmers (23 girls) aged 4–12 years. We contextualized these findings within children's interview responses and naturalistic observations of how pipe cleaners were incorporated into daily activities. Counter to our expectation, prior exposure did not improve children's performance during the hook task. Bondongo children innovated significantly more hooks than BaYaka children, possibly because they participate in hook-and-line fishing. Observations and interviews showed that children imagined and innovated novel uses for pipe cleaners outside the experimental context, including headbands, bracelets, and suspenders. We relate our findings to ongoing debates regarding systematic versus unsystematic tool innovation, the importance of prior experience for the ontogeny of tool innovation, and the external validity of experimental paradigms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaze is considered a crucial component of early communication between an infant and her caregiver. When communicatively addressed, infants respond aptly to others' gaze by following its direction. However, experience with face‐to‐face contact varies across cultures, begging the question whether infants' competencies in receiving others' communicative gaze signals are universal or culturally specific. We used eye‐tracking to assess gaze‐following responses of 5‐ to 7‐month olds in Vanuatu, where face‐to‐face parent–infant interactions are less prevalent than in Western populations. We found that—just like Western 6‐month‐olds studied previously—5‐ to ‐7‐month‐olds living in Vanuatu followed gaze only, when communicatively addressed. That is, if presented gaze shifts were preceded by infant‐directed speech, but not if they were preceded by adult‐directed speech. These results are consistent with the notion that early infant gaze following is tied to infants' early emerging communicative competencies and rooted in universal mechanisms rather than being dependent on cultural specificities of early socialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]