Social ties in the Congo Basin: insights into tropical forest adaptation from BaYaka and their neighbours

AH Boyette, S Lew-Levy, H Jang… - … Transactions of the …, 2022 - royalsocietypublishing.org
Investigating past and present human adaptation to the Congo Basin tropical forest can
shed light on how climate and ecosystem variability have shaped human evolution. Here …

Women's subsistence strategies predict fertility across cultures, but context matters

AE Page, EJ Ringen, J Koster… - Proceedings of the …, 2024 - National Acad Sciences
While it is commonly assumed that farmers have higher, and foragers lower, fertility
compared to populations practicing other forms of subsistence, robust supportive evidence …

Costly teaching contributes to the acquisition of spear hunting skill among BaYaka forager adolescents

S Lew-Levy, D Bombjaková, A Milks… - … of the Royal …, 2022 - royalsocietypublishing.org
Teaching likely evolved in humans to facilitate the faithful transmission of complex tasks. As
the oldest evidenced hunting technology, spear hunting requires acquiring several complex …

Foraging complexity and the evolution of childhood

I Pretelli, E Ringen, S Lew-Levy - Science Advances, 2022 - science.org
Our species' long childhood is hypothesized to have evolved as a period for learning
complex foraging skills. Researchers studying the development of foraging proficiency have …

Sociocultural drivers of mycological knowledge: insights from Wixarika and Mestizo groups in western Mexico

MX Haro-Luna, J Blancas Vázquez… - Journal of Ethnobiology …, 2022 - Springer
Background Traditional mycological knowledge (TMK) is complex, not distributed equally
among the entire population, and constantly adapting to current social situations. There are …

Associations between men's reputations for fathering and their reproductive success among BaYaka foragers in the Congo Basin

AH Boyette, S Lew-Levy, M Valchy, LT Gettler - Evolution and Human …, 2023 - Elsevier
It is generally recognized that paternal care is a facultative feature of human cooperative
caregiving that helps underpin our evolved life history strategy. Yet, little direct evidence …

Static penetration assessment of stone weapon tip geometry metrics and comparison of static and dynamic penetration depths

J Sitton, C Stenzel, B Buchanan, MI Eren… - …, 2023 - Wiley Online Library
Many factors governed the penetration efficacy of prehistoric projectile weaponry.
Archaeologists broadly focus their efforts on understanding the effect of stone weapon tips …

BaYaka adolescent boys nominate accessible adult men as preferred spear hunting models

S Lew-Levy, A Milks… - Current …, 2021 - journals.uchicago.edu
Humans are selective social learners. In a cultural landscape with many potential models,
learners must balance the cost associated with learning from successful models with …

Sharing and caring: Testosterone, fathering, and generosity among BaYaka foragers of the Congo Basin

LT Gettler, S Lew-Levy, MS Sarma, V Miegakanda… - Scientific Reports, 2020 - nature.com
Humans are rare among mammals in exhibiting paternal care and the capacity for broad
hyper-cooperation, which were likely critical to the evolutionary emergence of human life …

Development of embodied capital: Diet composition, foraging skills, and botanical knowledge of forager children in the Congo Basin

J Veen, H Jang, D Raubenheimer… - Frontiers in Ecology …, 2023 - frontiersin.org
The embodied capital theory states that the extended juvenile period has enabled human
foragers to acquire the complex foraging skills and knowledge needed to obtain food. Yet …