Lone individuals with ancestral know-how out-survive well-provisioned expert teams.

Evidence

The contrast with our lost European explorers could hardly be starker. One lone woman equipped with only the cumulative know-how of her ancestors survived for eighteen years whereas fully provisioned and well-financed teams of experienced explorers struggled in Australia, Texas, and the Arctic. These diverse cases testify to the nature of our species’ adaptation. During eons of relying on large bodies of cumulative cultural knowledge, our species became addicted to this cultural input; without culturally transmitted knowledge about how to locate and process plants, fashion tools from available materials, and avoid dangers, we don’t last long as hunter-gatherers. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 134

Categorization

• CANDY: The lone San Nicolas woman outfishing well-funded explorer teams is a striking, shareable contrast.
• XREF: connects to: Cumulative cultural adaptations cannot be improvised by individuals in years.; Seal hunting through ice requires skills no one can improvise in years. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 110; Random loss of skilled elders can erase a group’s entire complex tool repertoire — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 685 (+2 more)