Browsing by Subject "Play"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Open Access
Evidence for the Adaptive Learning Function of Work and Work-Themed Play among Aka Forager and Ngandu Farmer Children from the Congo Basin.
(Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.), 2018-06) Lew-Levy, Sheina; Boyette, Adam H
Work-themed play may allow children to learn complex skills, and ethno-typical and gender-typical behaviors. Thus, play may have made important contributions to the evolution of childhood through the development of embodied capital. Using data from Aka foragers and Ngandu farmer children from the Central African Republic, we ask whether children perform ethno- and gender-typical play and work activities, and whether play prepares children for complex work. Focal follows of 50 Aka and 48 Ngandu children were conducted with the aim of recording children's participation in 12 categories of work and work-themed play. Using these data, we test a set of hypotheses regarding how age, gender, ethnicity, and task complexity influence children's activities. As hypothesized, we find performance of work-themed play is negatively correlated with age. Contrary to our hypothesis, children do not play more than they work at complex tasks, but they work more than they play at simple ones. Gender and ethnicity are associated with play and work at culturally salient activities, despite availability of other-gender and other-ethnicity social partners. Our findings show that ethnic and gender biases are apparent in the play and work behavior of Aka and Ngandu children. Moreover, our results show that play helps both forager and farmer children learn complex skills, consistent with play having an adaptive learning function.
Open Access
Organizational and activational androgens, lemur social play, and the ontogeny of female dominance.
(Hormones and behavior, 2019-07-02) Grebe, Nicholas M; Fitzpatrick, Courtney; Sharrock, Katherine; Starling, Anne; Drea, Christine M
The role of androgens in shaping "masculine" traits in males is a core focus in behavioral endocrinology, but relatively little is known about an androgenic role in female aggression and social dominance. In mammalian models of female dominance, including the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta), links to androgens in adulthood are variable. We studied the development of ring-tailed lemurs to address the behavioral basis and ontogenetic mechanisms of female dominance. We measured behavior and serum androgen concentrations in 24 lemurs (8 males, 16 females) from infancy to early adulthood, and assessed their 'prenatal' androgen milieu using serum samples obtained from their mothers during gestation. Because logistical constraints limited the frequency of infant blood sampling, we accounted for asynchrony between behavioral and postnatal hormone measurements via imputation procedures. Imputation was unnecessary for prenatal hormone measurements. The typical sex difference in androgen concentrations in young lemurs was consistent with adult conspecifics and most other mammals; however, we found no significant sex differences in rough-and-tumble play. Female (but not male) aggression increased beginning at approximately 15 months, coincident with female puberty. In our analyses relating sexually differentiated behavior to androgens, we found no relationship with activational hormones, but several significant relationships with organizational hormones. Notably, associations of prenatal androstenedione and testosterone with behavior were differentiated, both by offspring sex and by type of behavior within offspring sexes. We discuss the importance of considering (1) missing data in behavioral endocrinology research, and (2) organizational androgens other than testosterone in studies of female dominance.