Expert tracking is culturally acquired knowledge, not innate instinct

Evidence

Although many species engage in some form of tracking, no other animal tracks the way we do. Studies of tracking among modern hunter-gatherers reveal that it is an arena of intensive cultural knowledge that is acquired through a kind of apprenticeship, as adolescents and young men watch the best hunters in their group interpret and discuss spoor. From the spoor, skilled trackers can deduce an individual’s age, sex, physical condition, speed, and fatigue level, as well as the time of day it passed by. Such feats are accomplished, in part, by knowledge of particular species’ habits, feeding preferences, social organization, and daily patterns. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 259

Categorization

• XREF: Ties into Henrich’s broader thesis (Ch. on apprenticeship and skill acquisition) about deference to experts and cumulative cultural learning as human’s adaptive edge over other species. — connects to: Once cultural knowledge accumulates, individuals cannot invent better traits than they can copy — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 205; Individual intelligence results from culturally accumulated tools rather than raw brainpower — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 53; Skill-based knowledge of place is transmitted through apprenticeship, not lessons — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 1326 (+1 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies tracking as an apprenticeship-driven arena of intensive cultural knowledge shared to rebut treating it as mere endurance, useful against naive ‘man the hunter’ narratives.

Broader Connections

• Observational learning enables cumulative cultural evolution of behaviors no individual could invent alone #expands (0.88) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 19
• Skill-based knowledge of place is transmitted through apprenticeship, not lessons #epitomizes (0.85) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1326
• Individual intelligence results from culturally accumulated tools rather than raw brainpower #corroborates (0.82) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 53
• Once cultural knowledge accumulates, individuals cannot invent better traits than they can copy #corroborates (0.78) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 205