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Subsistence ecology and play among the okavango delta peoples of botswana

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Bock, John Johnson, Sara E.
Copyright Year	2004
Abstract	Children’s play is widely believed by educators and social scientists to have a training function that contributes to psychosocial development as well as the acquisition of skills related to adult competency in task performance. In this paper we examine these assumptions from the perspective of life-history theory using behavioral observation and household economic data collected among children in a community in the Okavango Delta of Botswana where people engage in mixed subsistence regimes of dry farming, foraging, and herding.We hypothesize that if play contributes to adult competency then time allocation to play will decrease as children approach adult levels of competence. This hypothesis generates the following predictions: (1) time allocated to play activities that develop specific productive skills should decline in relation to the proportion of adult competency achieved; (2) children will spend more time in forms of play that are related to skill development in tasks specific to the subsistence ecology in which that child participates or expects to participate; and (3) children will spend more time in forms of play that are related to skill development in tasks clearly related to the gender-specific productive role in the subsistence ecology in which that child participates or expects to participate.We contrast these expectations with the alternative hypothesis that if play is not preparatory for adult competence then time allocated to each play activity should diminish at the same rate. This latter hypothesis generates the following two predictions: (1) time allocation to play should be unaffected by subsistence regime and (2) patterns of time allocation to play should track patterns of growth and energy balance.Results from multiple regression analysis support earlier research in this community showing that trade-offs between immediate productivity and future returns were a primary determinant of children’s activity patterns. Children whose labor was in greater demand spent significantly less time playing. In addition, controlling for age and gender, children spent significantly more time in play activities related to tasks specific to their household subsistence economy. These results are consistent with the assertion that play is an important factor in the development of adult competency and highlight the important contributions of an evolutionary ecological perspective in understanding children’s developmental trajectories.
Starting Page	63
Ending Page	81
Page Count	19
File Format	PDF
ISSN	10456767
Journal	Human Nature
Volume Number	15
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	19364776
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2004-01-01
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Botswana Children’s play Human evolutionary ecology Life-history theory Time allocation Anthropology Behavioural Sciences Biological Psychology
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Sociology and Political Science Arts and Humanities Anthropology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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