Search for: All records

Abstract ObjectivesFood sharing is a costly form of cooperation that was likely critical to human evolutionary success, including the emergence of human's life history strategy. Food sharing in human communities may be maintained through a number of pathways, including direct dyadic reciprocity, reputation‐based processes, and kin‐biased exchange. Differences in reproductive demands, labor, and cultural norms may also result in gendered differences in cooperative networks. Here, we examine cooperative networks in egalitarian BaYaka foragers from the Congo Basin. Materials and MethodsWe collected social network data from 112 adults in 41 households in this subsistence community. We implement a Bayesian latent network model to assess individual‐, dyadic‐, and block‐level predictors of food sharing partners. ResultsConditioning on covariates, we found limited evidence for direct dyadic reciprocity in food sharing. Despite local norms regarding prestige avoidance, we found status‐based homophily. High‐status individuals—council members and local healers—were more likely to share with one another. Importantly, our results highlight gender differences in patterns of food sharing, interacting with genetic relatedness. Women were more likely to share with one another, especially with kin as genetic relatedness increased. DiscussionOur results align with evolutionary framing emphasizing kin selection in costly cooperation. The results showing that women cooperate with other women, particularly kin, also complement sex‐based patterns in some other mammalian species, potentially reflecting the social support necessary to manage reproductive costs and childcare. BaYaka women's subsistence productivity and local cultural dynamics for autonomy and egalitarianism may likewise help facilitate women's preferential cooperation with one another. 

Abstract Recent decades have seen a rapid acceleration in global participation in formal education, due to worldwide initiatives aimed to provide school access to all children. Research in high income countries has shown that school quality indicators have a significant, positive impact on numeracy and literacy—skills required to participate in the increasingly globalized economy. Schools vary enormously in kind, resources, and teacher training around the world, however, and the validity of using diverse school quality measures in populations with diverse educational profiles remains unclear. First, we assessed whether children's numeracy and literacy performance across populations improves with age, as evidence of general school‐related learning effects. Next, we examined whether several school quality measures related to classroom experience and composition, and to educational resources, were correlated with one another. Finally, we examined whether they were associated with children's (4–12‐year‐olds,N = 889) numeracy and literacy performance in 10 culturally and geographically diverse populations which vary in historical engagement with formal schooling. Across populations, age was a strong positive predictor of academic achievement. Measures related to classroom experience and composition were correlated with one another, as were measures of access to educational resources and classroom experience and composition. The number of teachers per class and access to writing materials were key predictors of numeracy and literacy, while the number of students per classroom, often linked to academic achievement, was not. We discuss these results in the context of maximising children's learning environments and highlight study limitations to motivate future research. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTSWe examined the extent to which four measures of school quality were associated with one another, and whether they predicted children's academic achievement in 10 culturally and geographically diverse societies.Across populations, measures related to classroom experience and composition were correlated with one another as were measures of access to educational resources to classroom experience and composition.Age, the number of teachers per class, and access to writing materials were key predictors of academic achievement across populations.Our data have implications for designing efficacious educational initiatives to improve school quality globally.