10-05-2025
Singing lullabies is learned, not innate, study suggests
Is the impulse to dance or sing a lullaby universal? Anthropologists have long thought so, but a recent analysis suggests the behaviors are learned, not hardwired in people.
The study, published in Current Biology, focuses on the 800 members of the Northern Aché, an Indigenous people in Paraguay. One of the authors, Arizona State University anthropologist Kim Hill, has worked with the Northern Aché since the 1970s, learning their language, living among them and observing their culture.
