Cross-Cultural Variation in Infant Motor Development

AbstractAspects of human life history and cognition, such as our long childhoods and extensive use of teaching, theoretically evolved to facilitate the acquisition of complex tasks. The present paper empirically examines the relationship between subsistence task difficulty and age of acquisition, rates of teaching, and rates of oblique transmission among Hadza and BaYaka foragers from Tanzania and the Republic of Congo. We further examine cross-cultural variation in how and from whom learning occurred. Learning patterns and community perceptions of task difficulty were assessed through interviews. We found no relationship between task difficulty, age of acquisition, and oblique transmission, and a weak but positive relationship between task difficulty and rates of teaching. While same-sex transmission was normative in both societies, tasks ranked as more difficult were more likely to be transmitted by men among the BaYaka, but not among the Hadza, potentially reflecting cross-cultural differences in the sexual division of subsistence and teaching labor. Further, the BaYaka were more likely to report learning via teaching, and less likely to report learning via observation, than the Hadza, possibly owing to differences in socialization practices.

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Infant Motor Development and Physical Activity and Sedentary Time at Midlife

Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports ◽

10.1111/sms.13954 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Anna‐Kaisa Karppanen ◽

Tuula Hurtig ◽

Jouko Miettunen ◽

Niemelä Maisa ◽

Tuija Tammelin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Motor Development ◽

Sedentary Time ◽

Infant Motor Development

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Affective Interpersonal Touch in Close Relationships: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin ◽

10.1177/0146167220988373 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 014616722098837

Author(s):

Agnieszka Sorokowska ◽

Supreet Saluja ◽

Piotr Sorokowski ◽

Tomasz Frąckowiak ◽

Maciej Karwowski ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Close Relationships ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Cultural Variation ◽

Interpersonal Distance ◽

Cultural Perspective ◽

Affective Touch ◽

Individual Level ◽

Interpersonal Touch ◽

Regional Temperature

Interpersonal touch behavior differs across cultures, yet no study to date has systematically tested for cultural variation in affective touch, nor examined the factors that might account for this variability. Here, over 14,000 individuals from 45 countries were asked whether they embraced, stroked, kissed, or hugged their partner, friends, and youngest child during the week preceding the study. We then examined a range of hypothesized individual-level factors (sex, age, parasitic history, conservatism, religiosity, and preferred interpersonal distance) and cultural-level factors (regional temperature, parasite stress, regional conservatism, collectivism, and religiosity) in predicting these affective-touching behaviors. Our results indicate that affective touch was most prevalent in relationships with partners and children, and its diversity was relatively higher in warmer, less conservative, and religious countries, and among younger, female, and liberal people. This research allows for a broad and integrated view of the bases of cross-cultural variability in affective touch.

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