Why Animals Lack Pedagogy and Some Cultures Have More of It Than Others

Abstract

Pedagogy, the teaching of one individual by another, appears to be a biological novelty, an activity largely confined to humans. If this is true, what are the psychological mechanisms on which pedagogy depends? Pedagogy is not a neutral achievement; it permits the evolution of culture and the possibility of history—that sequence of changes through which a species passes while remaining biologically stable. These changes are cultural changes, each stage incorporating important aspects of the past. The means for preserving and transforming culture are primarily pedagogical. The more rapid the social changes, the more they are dependent upon pedagogy.

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