In this special issue of Human Nature we explore the possible adaptive links between teaching and learning during childhood, and we aim to expand the dialogue on the ways in which the social sciences, and in particular current anthropological research, may better inform our shifting understanding of how these processes vary in different social and ecological environments. Despite the cross-disciplinary trend toward incorporating more behavioral and cognitive data outside of postindustrial state societies, much of the published cross-cultural data is presented as stand-alone population-level studies, making it challenging to extrapolate trends or incorporate both ecological and developmental perspectives. Here, contributors explore how human life history, ecological experience, cumulative culture, and ethnolinguistics impact social learning and child development in foraging and transitioning societies around the world. Using historical ethnographic data and qualitative and quantitative data from studies with contemporary populations, authors interrogate the array of factors that likely interact with cognitive development and learning. They provide contributions that explore the unique environmental, social, and cultural conditions that characterize such populations, offering key insights into processes of social learning, adaptive learning responses, and culture change. This series of articles demonstrates that children are taught culturally and environmentally salient skills in myriad ways, ranging from institutionalized instruction to brief, nuanced, and indirect instruction. Our hope is that this collection stimulates more research on the evolutionary and developmental implications associated with teaching and learning among humans.

在本期《人性》特刊中我们探索童年时期教与学之间可能的适应性联系，我们的目标是扩大关于社会科学，特别是当前人类学研究的方式的对话，可以更好地告知我们对这些过程如何在不同社会环境中变化的理解的转变。和生态环境。尽管跨学科的趋势是在后工业国家社会之外整合更多的行为和认知数据，但大部分已发布的跨文化数据都是作为独立的人口水平研究呈现的，这使得推断趋势或将生态和发展数据结合起来具有挑战性观点。在这里，撰稿人探讨人类生活史、生态体验、文化积累、和民族语言学在世界各地的觅食和转型社会中影响社会学习和儿童发展。作者使用历史人种学数据以及来自当代人群研究的定性和定量数据，询问可能与认知发展和学习相互作用的一系列因素。他们提供了探索这些人群特征的独特环境、社会和文化条件的贡献，提供了对社会学习过程、适应性学习反应和文化变革的关键见解。这一系列文章表明，从制度化的教学到简短、细致入微和间接的教学，儿童可以通过多种方式接受文化和环境方面的显着技能教育。