Our team is committed to interdisciplinary cross-cultural research on the lives of children in foraging & mixed-subsistence societies.
If you are interested in participating in one of our research projects, or are looking for support for your own research project, contact us at foragerchildstudies@gmail.com
Past and present Research Projects
(1) Children’s work and play: In a cross-cultural analysis made up of secondary data, this project sought to explore how ecological and cultural factors influence children’s participation in play and work activities across the lifespan.
(2) Forager children’s experience in school: Using eHRAF and existing literature, we collaborated with HG-EDU to investigate forager children’s experiences in schools.
(3) Children's foraging returns: Using a systematic protocol, this project examined cross-cultural variation and regularity in children's reported foraging returns. We also argued for a more integrative approach to understanding children’s foraging, foregrounding the immediate benefits such activities confer to children and their communities.
(4) Children's use of tools: This project examines how children use tools and toys in play and work. We developed a cross-cultural database of children’s toys and tools. We have also developed a systematic protocol for recording the depth and breadth of knowledge regarding toys in subsistence communities, which we are currently piloting.
(5) Children's social learning: This project aims to understand how foraging children learn instrumental and opaque cultural traits, how they learn with peers, and how this varies across subsistence strategy and ecology. We are also exploring the agentic role children play in culture change.
Published Research
Play-Object-Play is a database of toys and tools made for and/or used by children from subsistence societies: https://www.play-object-play.au.dk/
Ninkova, V., Hays, J., Lavi, N., Ali, A., Lopes da Silva Macedo, S., Davis, H.E., Lew-Levy, S. (2025). Hunter-gatherer children at school: A view from the Global South. Review of Educational Research, 95(4): 661-700. Link
Garfield, Z., Lew-Levy, S. (2025). Teaching is associated with the transmission of opaque culture and leadership across 23 egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies. Nature Communications, 16: 3387. Link
Lew-Levy, S., Amir, D. (2025). Children as agents of cultural adaptation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Target article. Link
Hewlett, B.S., Boyette, A.H., Lew-Levy, S., Gallois, S., Dira, S. (2024). Cultural transmission among hunter-gatherers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 121(48): e2322883121. Link
Hays, J., Ninkova, V., Lavi, N., Lew-Levy, S., Davis, H.E., Lopes da Silva Macedo, S., Ali, A. (2024). Autonomous hunter-gatherer children in hierarchical schools: A review of the literature from the Global South. Hunter Gatherer Research. Link
Pretelli, I., Crittenden, A.N., Dounias, E.., Friant, S.., Koster, J., Kramer, K., Mangola, S., Mari Saez, A., Lew-Levy, S. Child and adolescent foraging: New directions in evolutionary research. Evolutionary Anthropology, 33(2): e22020. Link
Pretelli, I., Ringen, E.J., Lew-Levy, S. (2022). Foraging complexity and the evolution of childhood. Science Advances, 8(41): eabn9889. Link
Riede, F., Lew-Levy, S., Johannsen, N.N., Lavi, N., Andersen, M.M. (2023). Toys as teachers: A cross-cultural analysis of object play and enskillment in hunter-gatherer societies. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 30(1): 32-63. Link
Lew-Levy, S., Andersen, M.M., Lavi, N., Riede, F. Hunter-gatherer children’s object play and tool use: An ethnohistorical analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 13: 824983. Link
Lew-Levy, S., Reckin, R., Kissler, S.M., Pretelli, I., Boyette, A.H., Crittenden, A.N., Hagen, R., Haas, R., Kramer, K.L., Koster, J., O’Brien, M., Sonoda, K., Surovell, T.A., Tucker, B., Lavi, N., Ellis-Davies, K., Davis, H.E. (2022). Socioecology shapes child and adolescent time allocation in twelve hunter-gatherer and mixed-subsistence forager societies. Scientific Reports, 12: 0854. Link
Milks, A., Lew-Levy, S., Lavi, N., Friesem, D.E., Reckin, R. (2021). Hunter-gatherer children in the past: An archaeological review. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 64: 101369. Link Open Access
Reckin, R., Lew-Levy, S., Lavi, N., Ellis-Davies, K. (2020). Mobility, autonomy and learning: Could the transition from egalitarian to non-egalitarian social structures start with children? In Social Inequality Before Farming: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Investigation of Egalitarian and Non-Egalitarian Social Relationships in Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Societies (peer reviewed). Ed: L. Moreau. Cambridge: MacDonald Institute Monograph Series. Link
Lew-Levy, S., Milks, A., Lavi, N., Pope, S.M., Friesem, D.E. (2020). Where innovations flourish: An ethnographic and archaeological overview of hunter-gatherer learning contexts. Evolutionary Human Sciences. Link
Lew-Levy, S., Lavi, N., Reckin, R., Cristobal-Azkarate, J., Ellis-Davies, K. (2018). How do hunter-gatherer children learn social and gender norms? A meta-ethnographic review. Cross-Cultural Research. Link
Lew-Levy, S., Reckin, R., Lavi, N., Cristobal-Azkarate, J., Ellis-Davies, K. (2017). How do hunter-gatherer children learn subsistence skills? A meta-ethnographic review. Human Nature. Link
Visualization: A bibliometric analysis of FCS scholars' research, created by Erik Ringen.
Forager Child Studies contributes to the Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ Food and Knowledge systems.
The Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ Food and Knowledge systems is a strategic thinktank that leads innovative ways of co-creating knowledge. The experts in the Global-Hub honour oral knowledge and put at the same level of recognition Indigenous Peoples’ science and academic/formal science. Bringing together Indigenous and non-Indigenous experts from 7 socio cultural regions, over 38 organisations, and 3 international research networks worldwide, the Global-Hub bridges the divide between academia and Indigenous Peoples’ science. Indigenous Peoples’ science, resulting from thousands of years of observation and experience, is encapsulated into a dynamic body of knowledge mostly orally transmitted through the over 4000 remaining Indigenous Peoples’ languages.
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