Children’s foraging and play among the Hadza

The nature of children’s play is regularly described in juxtaposition to economic contribution or, conversely, play is touted as the “work” of children (Gaskins, Haight, and Lancy 2007; Isaacs 1929; Montessori 1964). It has been proposed that children “work where and when they can be of economic value and play when and where they cannot”(Chick 2010: 136). Play is largely discussed in the context of psychosocial development or economic productivity, with little regard to the dual nature of work and play in most small-scale societies. The construction of this dichotomy, although common in the literature, obscures not only the value of the experiential learning of play but also the discussion of the costs and benefits of foraging and play (see Bock and Johnson 2004 for a discussion of trade-offs and opportunity costs). Hunter-gatherer children provide a unique opportunity to study this duality, as their economic contribution is often described as “an extension of play” (Tucker and Young 2005: 168). Despite the inherent value of this type of analysis, the majority of data on the relationship between food collection and play among children of foraging populations remain anecdotal (Gosso et al. 2005). In this chapter, I analyze children’s foraging among the Hadza huntergatherers of Tanzania and determine the degree to which children’s foraging has direct implications for self-provisioning. I then situate children’s foraging in the larger context of play and argue that foraging represents a type of “work play,” dually functioning as economic contribution and developmentally significant play.