Wisdom of the Elders?

A common assumption is that individuals continue to accumulate ethnobiological knowledge throughout their lives, resulting in greater expertise among the elder generations. Alternative theoretical perspectives suggest that ethnobiological knowledge about animals should peak earlier in life, paralleling and facilitating the emergence of foraging proficiency among younger adults. We test these competing models among indigenous Nicaraguans with three measures of knowledge about fish behavior. Our results indicate that individuals exhibit considerable domain knowledge as relatively young adults. There is also a positive correlation between some measures of knowledge and fishing ability, suggesting that knowledge may promote and develop from specialization and the allocation of effort to fishing. These results imply a model of humans as flexible learners, assimilating ethnobiological knowledge via social learning and related experiences. Contrary to conventional perspectives, we suggest that age-related variation in knowledge among adults is attributable primarily to proximate factors, such as acculturation, time allocation to related productive tasks, and social-learning opportunities.