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Imaginary worlds pervade forager oral tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2022

Michelle Scalise Sugiyama Open the ORCID record for Michelle Scalise Sugiyama [Opens in a new window]
Michelle Scalise Sugiyama*
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97401, USA mscalise@uoregon.edu https://talkingstories.uoregon.edu/
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Abstract

Imaginary worlds recur across hunter-gatherer narrative, suggesting that they are an ancient part of human life: to understand their popularity, we must examine their origins. Hunter-gatherer fictional narratives use various devices to encode factual information. Thus, participation in these invented worlds, born of our evolved ability to engage in pretense, may provide adaptations with information inputs that scaffold their development.

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Open Peer Commentary
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Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e296
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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