Social learning among the Raute, a nomadic hunter-gatherer community in Nepal

This paper focuses on the production, sharing and transformation of knowledge among the Raute, a nomadic hunter-gatherer community from Nepal. This paper has three primary aims: 1) to explore how Raute children acquire knowledge; 2) to examine the influence of cultural norms, values and beliefs on the transmission of foraging knowledge; and 3) to analyse recent shifts in everyday learning practices. I demonstrate that Raute knowledge transmission is informal, with children learning from parents, alloparents, elders and peers through imitation, teaching, play, participation and storytelling. Unlike the more egalitarian learning systems observed in other hunter-gatherer societies, Raute learning is structured by age hierarchies, with parents exerting significant control and sometimes enforcing harsh discipline. Additionally, I argue that trade relationships with sedentary communities, mediated through begging, proverbs and blessings, introduce external influences that reshape Raute knowledge systems. Despite the Raute’s emphasis on cultural secrecy and their rejection of formal schooling, these interactions contribute to the loss of traditional skills, such as clothing manufacture, while younger Raute adopt new languages, foods and technologies. This analysis adds to our growing understanding of hunter-gatherer learning diversity and processes of culture change.