RadicalAnthro

RadicalAnthro, 6 days ago to Seinfeld

A few years old but a very neat piece from evolutionary #anthropologist Karen #Kramer. How do children learn best? Packed into same-age classrooms listening to an adult?

'...work among with the Pumé of Venezuela and the Maya living in the Yucatan Peninsula—resoundingly suggests that they learn from one another.'
...
'IN THE CHILD-populous world of hunter-gatherers, little separates the spheres of adults and children. The places they work, play, relax, and sleep are not segregated. Privacy, alone time, and adult-only spaces are concepts unknown to the Pumé, for example. They live in open-walled structures that children freely run in and out of without requesting entry. Pumé children also aren’t restricted from what might be considered adult spaces and activities, such as menstrual huts (special structures where women in many traditional societies go for the few days a month when they menstruate), watching births, being around the dying, or participating in all-night social dances, called tohé, where the band joins together to sing, conduct healings, and tell stories.'

#education #childcare #childdevelopment #play #Pumé #huntergatherers #anthropology

https://www.sapiens.org/culture/children-social-learning/