Random loss of skilled elders can erase a group’s entire complex tool repertoire

Evidence

Sometime in the 1820s an epidemic hit this population of hunters and selectively killed off many of its oldest and most knowledgeable members. With the sudden disappearance of the know-how carried by these individuals, the group collectively lost its ability to make some of its most crucial and complex tools, including leisters (figure 3.1 ), bows and arrows, the heat-trapping long entry ways for snow houses, and most important, kayaks. With the loss of kayaks, the Polar Inuit became effectively marooned, unable to maintain contact with other Inuit populations from which they could relearn this lost know-how. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 685

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Collective brain size, not individual intelligence, may have driven Neanderthal replacement — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 736; Information loss from imperfect copying is a constant drag on cultural transmission — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 713; Immigrant groups lose usefulness once emigration stops and homegrown generations lack old-world skills — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 164 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Immigrant groups lose usefulness once emigration stops and homegrown generations lack old-world skills #expands (0.82) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 164
• Suppressed knowledge can resurface centuries later when new tools emerge #qualifies (0.80) — Jamal Awil, The Whispering Archive, 1694
• A displaced group’s collective unconscious changes within a century #expands (0.75)
• Lone individuals with ancestral know-how out-survive well-provisioned expert teams. #contradicts (0.75) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 134