Forager water-procurement know-how is nonobvious cultural knowledge that genes could not supply

Evidence

The answer is that cultural evolution supplied water containers and water-finding know-how. Among ethnographically known foraging populations, hunters carry water in gourds, skins, and ostrich eggs. Such containers are used in conjunction with detailed, local, culturally transmitted knowledge about where and how to locate water. In the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa, foragers use ostrich eggs as canteens (water containers), which keep the water refreshingly cool, or occasionally use the stomach sacs of small antelopes. They also use long reed straws to suck water from hollow tree trunks, where it collects, and they can readily locate water-bearing roots by spotting certain dry wispy vines. In Australia, hunter-gatherers created water containers using a technique that involved turning small mammals “inside-out” (see figure 5.3 ). Like the Kalahari foragers, they also used surface signs to locate hidden underground water sources. These techniques are nonobvious: recall that Burke and Wills became trapped along Coopers Creek for want of such know-how. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 255

Categorization

• SHARE: The inside-out small-mammal water container technique and the Burke-and-Wills anecdote are narrow, vivid details worth sending to anyone interested in survival craft or Australian exploration history.
• XREF: connects to: Culture supplied the water capacity that genes alone could not, enabling endurance running adaptations — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 256; Adaptive complexity can come from cumulative culture, not genes or intention — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 384; Survival in unfamiliar environments requires local ecological knowledge, not just provisions — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 120 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Survival in extreme environments hinges on culturally accumulated knowledge, not individual capacity. #exemplifies (0.90) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 107
• Human survival competence depends on inherited knowledge, not innate wit alone #corroborates (0.86) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 41
• Adaptive complexity can come from cumulative culture, not genes or intention #expands (0.84) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 384
• Survival in unfamiliar environments requires local ecological knowledge, not just provisions #expands (0.82) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 120
• Once cultural knowledge accumulates, individuals cannot invent better traits than they can copy #corroborates (0.80) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 205
• Culture is not tightly constrained by genetic nature. #corroborates (0.78) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 155
• The mind is constituted by culture, not bare biology #corroborates (0.75) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 431
• Evolutionary and neurological accounts cannot fully explain cultural patterns #corroborates (0.74) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 807
• Cultural evolution fills in god content within evolved mentalizing constraints #qualifies (0.72)