What we can learn from hunter-gatherers about child and maternal mental health?

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• Dr Nikhil Chaudhary, University of Cambridge
• Thursday 05 June 2025, 12:30-13:30
• Online via zoom.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Oliver Knight.

Humans lived as hunter-gatherers for more than 95% of our evolutionary history, thus studying contemporary hunter-gatherer populations can offer insight into the conditions we are psychologically adapted to. Drawing on observational data collected during fieldwork with BaYaka hunter-gatherers, I show that multiple caregiving (allomothering) and active peer-learning in mixed-age playgroups are normative features of BaYaka childhoods. These trends appear to be uniform across hunter-gatherer populations, and as such, they are likely to have been fundamental in shaping human life-history, psychology and behaviour. I consider how deviations from these childrearing practices in WEIRD (Western Educated Industrialised Rich Democratic) societies may result in evolutionary mismatch. More specifically, why such discordances could potentially increase the risk of postnatal depression and anxiety, negative attachment outcomes, and difficulties for children with ADHD .

This talk is part of the Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series series.

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