Using methods from anthropology and psychology, I conduct research in hunter-gatherer societies to understand the cultural diversity in, and evolution of, social learning in childhood.
I am an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Durham University (U.K.).
EDUCATION
2019 PhD, Psychology, University of Cambridge
2015 MPhil, Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge (Distinction)
2013 BA, Anthropology, McGill University (First Class Honours)
RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS
Multidisciplinary, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Anthropology
2600
Scholar Citations
28
Scholar h-index
50
Scholar i10-index
RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
The meanings and dividends of man the hunter VV Venkataraman, EH Hagen, D Stibbard-Hawkes, R Hames, ... Evolution and Human Behavior 47 (3), 106840 , 2026 2026 Citations: 5
Evidence against the age-based imitation bias in a culturally diverse sample S Lew-Levy, J Xu, S Pope-Caldwell, C Sutherland, F Ntamboudila, ... OSF , 2026 2026
Cross-cultural perspectives on men's age-related testosterone decline: Evidence from the US and farming and forager communities in the Congo Basin NK Shabu, AH Boyette, V Miegakanda, MS Sarma, S Lew-Levy, LT Gettler AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY 38 , 2026 2026
Associations between caregiver presence, child cortisol, and nutritional status among BaYaka foragers in the Republic of the Congo JK Hlay, S Pope-Caldwell, S Lew-Levy, L T Gettler AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY 38 , 2026 2026
Household composition and adult nutritional status among BaYaka foragers in the Republic of the Congo BF Domingues, S Pope-Caldwell, J Hlay, S Lew-Levy, LT Gettler AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY 38 , 2026 2026
The social learning and development of intra-and inter-ethnic sharing norms in the Congo Basin S Lew-Levy, L Maurits, AH Boyette, K Ellis-Davies, D Haun, W Vieira, ... PLoS One 21 (1), e0340388 , 2026 2026 Citations: 5
The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution E Miu, MM Andersen, S Lew-Levy, F Riede Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 293 (2063) , 2026 2026 Citations: 3
Advancing equity in collaborative research: reflections from the Cultural Evolution Society Transformation Fund AH Boyette, JEM van der Wal, DW Lawson, S Asatsa, EW Gichimu, ... Philosophical Transactions B 380 (1940), 20240269 , 2025 2025 Citations: 1
Cultural transmission during Luhya mourning rituals S Asatsa, S Lew-Levy, J Makunda, E Wangari Gichimu, S Mwende, ... Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 380 … , 2025 2025 Citations: 2
“Fiercely Egalitarian”: Thematic Cross-Cultural Analysis Reveals Regularities in the Maintenance of Egalitarianism Across Four Independent African Hunter-Gatherer Groups J Thomson, S Lew-Levy, C Rueden, DNE Stibbard-Hawkes Cross-Cultural Research 59 (5), 535-578 , 2025 2025 Citations: 4
BaYaka forager and Bantu fisher‐farmer adolescent engagement with intensifying market integration in the Republic of the Congo S Lew‐Levy, V Kandza, H Jang, F Kiabiya Ntamboudila, ... Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute , 2025 2025 Citations: 1
Mourning ritual participation, subjective well-being and prosocial behaviour among the Luhya people of Kenya S Asatsa, E Ringen, R Kapitany, SM Ngaari, J Makunda, ... Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 292 (2054) , 2025 2025 Citations: 4
A Field Guide to Cross-Cultural Research on Childhood Learning: Theoretical, Methodological, Practical, and Ethical Considerations for an Interdisciplinary Field S Lew-Levy, S Asatsa Open Book Publishers , 2025 2025 Citations: 1
Teaching is associated with the transmission of opaque culture and leadership across 23 egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies ZH Garfield, S Lew-Levy Nature Communications 16 (1), 3387 , 2025 2025 Citations: 15
Associations between adult peer rankings of child health and indicators of child well-being among BaYaka foragers and Bandongo fisher-farmers in the Congo Basin NK Shabu, AH Boyette, V Miegakanda, MS Sarma, S Lew-Levy, LT Gettler AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY 37 , 2025 2025
Daily physical activity levels among subsistence-society children and adolescents in the Congo Basin H Nadile, S Lew-Levy, DR Samson, A Mir, V Kandza, H Jang, ... AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY 37 , 2025 2025
Construct validity in cross-cultural, developmental research: Challenges and strategies for improvement NJ Wen, D Amir, JM Clegg, HE Davis, NB Dutra, MA Kline, S Lew-Levy, ... Evolutionary Human Sciences 7, e17 , 2025 2025 Citations: 22
Regulating community well-being through traditional mourning rituals: Insights from the Luhya People of Kenya S Asatsa, S Lew-Levy, S Ngaari Mbugua, M Ntaragwe, W Shanyisa, ... Evolution, medicine, and public health 13 (1), 140-150 , 2025 2025 Citations: 15
Children as agents of cultural adaptation S Lew-Levy, D Amir Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1-68 , 2024 2024 Citations: 32
Cultural transmission among hunter-gatherers BS Hewlett, AH Boyette, S Lew-Levy, S Gallois, SJ Dira Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121 (48), e2322883121 , 2024 2024 Citations: 33
MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
How Do Hunter-Gatherer Children Learn Subsistence Skills? A meta-ethnographic review S Lew-Levy, R Reckin, N Lavi, J Cristóbal-Azkarate, K Ellis-Davies Human Nature 28 (4), 367-394 , 2017 2017 Citations: 311
Universal norm psychology leads to societal diversity in prosocial behaviour and development BR House, P Kanngiesser, HC Barrett, T Broesch, S Cebioglu, ... Nature Human Behaviour 4 (1), 36-44 , 2020 2020 Citations: 294
How do hunter-gatherer children learn social and gender norms? A meta-ethnographic review S Lew-Levy, N Lavi, R Reckin, J Cristóbal-Azkarate, K Ellis-Davies Cross-Cultural Research 52 (2), 213-255 , 2018 2018 Citations: 152
Who teaches children to forage? Exploring the primacy of child-to-child teaching among Hadza and BaYaka Hunter-Gatherers of Tanzania and Congo S Lew-Levy, SM Kissler, AH Boyette, AN Crittenden, IA Mabulla, ... Evolution and Human Behavior 40 (1), 12-22 , 2020 2020 Citations: 137
Gender-typed and gender-segregated play among Tanzanian Hadza and Congolese BaYaka hunter-gatherer children and adolescents S Lew-Levy, AH Boyette, AN Crittenden, BS Hewlett, M Lamb Child Development 91 (4), 1284-1301 , 2020 2020 Citations: 107
Toys as teachers: A cross-cultural analysis of object use and enskillment in hunter–gatherer societies F Riede, S Lew-Levy, NN Johannsen, N Lavi, MM Andersen Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 30 (1), 32-63 , 2023 2023 Citations: 65
Evidence for the adaptive learning function of work and work-themed play among Aka forager and Ngandu farmer Children from the Congo Basin S Lew-Levy, AH Boyette Human Nature 29 (2), 157-185 , 2018 2018 Citations: 63
How small-scale societies achieve large-scale cooperation L Glowacki, S Lew-Levy Current Opinion in Psychology 44, 44-48 , 2022 2022 Citations: 59
Female foragers sometimes hunt, yet gendered divisions of labor are real: A comment on Anderson et al.(2023) The Myth of Man the Hunter VV Venkataraman, J Hoffman, K Farquharson, HE Davis, EH Hagen, ... Evolution and Human Behavior 45 (4), 106586 , 2024 2024 Citations: 58
Where innovations flourish: an ethnographic and archaeological overview of hunter–gatherer learning contexts S Lew-Levy, A Milks, N Lavi, SM Pope, DE Friesem Evolutionary Human Sciences 2 (e31), 1-23 , 2020 2020 Citations: 58
Inter-and intra-cultural variation in learning-through-participation among Hadza and BaYaka forager children and adolescents from Tanzania and Congo S Lew-Levy, AN Crittenden, AH Boyette, IA Mabulla, BS Hewlett, ... Journal of Psychology in Africa 29 (4), 309-318 , 2019 2019 Citations: 58
Costly teaching contributes to the acquisition of spear hunting skill among BaYaka forager adolescents S Lew-Levy, D Bombjaková, A Milks, F Kiabiya Ntamboudila, MA Kline, ... Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 289 (1974) , 2022 2022 Citations: 56
Peer learning and cultural evolution S Lew-Levy, W van den Bos, K Corriveau, N Dutra, E Flynn, E O'Sullivan, ... Child Development Perspectives 17 (2), 97-105 , 2023 2023 Citations: 55
Hunter-gatherer children’s object play and tool use: An ethnohistorical analysis S Lew-Levy, MM Andersen, N Lavi, F Riede Frontiers in Psychology 13, 824983 , 2022 2022 Citations: 51
Reproductive inequality in humans and other mammals CT Ross, PL Hooper, JE Smith, AV Jaeggi, EA Smith, S Gavrilets, ... Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120 (22), e2220124120 , 2023 2023 Citations: 48
Physical activity and time budgets of Hadza forager children: Implications for self‐provisioning and the ontogeny of the sexual division of labor AW Froehle, GK Wells, TR Pollom, AZP Mabulla, S Lew‐Levy, ... American Journal of Human Biology 31 (1), e23209 , 2019 2019 Citations: 47
Women’s subsistence strategies predict fertility across cultures, but context matters AE Page, EJ Ringen, J Koster, M Borgerhoff Mulder, K Kramer, MK Shenk, ... Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121 (9), e2318181121 , 2024 2024 Citations: 46
Socioecology shapes child and adolescent time allocation in twelve hunter-gatherer and mixed-subsistence forager societies S Lew-Levy, R Reckin, SM Kissler, I Pretelli, AH Boyette, AN Crittenden, ... Scientific Reports 12 (1), 8054 , 2022 2022 Citations: 46
Fatherhood, egalitarianism, and child health in two small‐scale societies in the Republic of the Congo AH Boyette, S Lew‐Levy, MS Sarma, V Miegakanda, LT Gettler American Journal of Human Biology 32, e23342 , 2020 2020 Citations: 42
The life history of learning subsistence skills among Hadza and BaYaka foragers from Tanzania and the Republic of Congo S Lew-Levy, EJ Ringen, AN Crittenden, IA Mabulla, T Broesch, MA Kline Human Nature 32 (1), 16-47 , 2021 2021 Citations: 41
