About

I study how children learn, play, and build their own social worlds — from the Congo Basin rainforest to Slovak kindergartens.

I am a social anthropologist at the Institute of Social Anthropology, Comenius University in Bratislava. My research concerns childhood, social learning, and peer culture, approached through long-term ethnographic fieldwork and mixed methods.

I currently supervise student research on children’s group dynamics, learning, and culture in Slovak early-childhood settings. This collaborative work has produced recent co-authored studies on how preschoolers construct wisdom within their peer groups and on how young children come to know the trees around them.

Earlier in my career, I carried out long-term ethnographic fieldwork with the Mbendjele BaYaka hunter-gatherers of Congo-Brazzaville. That research examined public speaking, ridicule, play, and teaching as channels of cultural transmission in an egalitarian society.

Research supervision

Mentoring BA and MA researchers at Comenius University on ethnographies of children’s groups — peer hierarchies, wisdom, material culture, and environmental knowledge.

Career readiness

Building an internship program that integrates work experience into the social anthropology curriculum (see Practicing Anthropology, 2025).

Science policy

Leading the implementation of Slovakia’s national evaluation system for science, research, and art (VER), and co-author of the country profile in the Research on Research Institute observatory (with N. Gogadze).

Childhood & Peer Culture in Slovak Kindergartens

2023 — present

Collaborative ethnographic research with students at Comenius University on how young children learn, negotiate status, and make sense of their social and natural environments.

  1. 2026
    Bombjaková, D., & Mikuškovičová, S. Wisdom and dominance in preschool peer culture: A mixed-methods exploration. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. Advance online publication.
    doi:10.1177/14639491251404956
  2. 2025
    Bombjaková, D., & Rusňáková, V. Trees in the eyes of young learners: A study on knowledge and educational methods. Plant-Environment Interactions, 6(5), e70090.
    doi:10.1002/pei3.70090

Teaching & Practicing Anthropology

2021 — present

Work on anthropology education, career readiness, and the evaluation of research — connecting the discipline to practice and policy.

  1. 2025
    Bombjaková, D. Enhancing career readiness in social anthropology: Integrating work experience into the curriculum. Practicing Anthropology, 1–15.
    doi:10.1080/08884552.2025.2577987

Hunter-Gatherer Research

2012 — 2026

My earlier research focused on cultural transmission among the Mbendjele BaYaka of Congo-Brazzaville, based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the Likouala Department.

  1. 2026
    Bombjaková, D., & Kanovský, M. Ethnography of noise: Normative dimensions of mòtɔ́kɔ́. African Study Monographs, 46, 31–44.
    doi:10.34548/asm.46.31
  2. 2026
    Bombjaková, D. Before Turnbull: Schebesta’s neglected observations on Ituri forest hunter-gatherer childhood (1933). Anthropos. Forthcoming
  3. 2023
    Bombjaková, D., Lew-Levy, S., Duda, R., Loubelo, G., & Lewis, J. BaYaka education: From the forest to the ORA (Observer, Réflechir, Agir) classroom. Hunter Gatherer Research, 6(1–2), 87–114.
    doi:10.3828/hgr.2023.3
  4. 2022
    Lew-Levy, S., Bombjaková, D., Milks, A., Kiabiya Ntamboudila, F., Kline, M. A., & Broesch, T. Costly teaching contributes to the acquisition of spear hunting skill among BaYaka forager adolescents. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 289(1974), 20220164.
    doi:10.1098/rspb.2022.0164
  5. 2020
    Bombjaková, D. Culturally appropriate solutions to fieldwork challenges among Mbendjele BaYaka hunter-gatherers of the Congo Basin. In B. L. Hewlett (Ed.), The secret lives of anthropologists: Lessons from the field (pp. 112–133). Routledge.
  6. 2019
    Boesch, C., Bombjaková, D., Meier, A., & Mundry, R. Learning curves and teaching when acquiring nut-cracking in humans and chimpanzees. Scientific Reports, 9, 1515.
    doi:10.1038/s41598-018-38392-8
  7. 2018
    Sonoda, K., Bombjaková, D., & Gallois, S. Cultural transmission of foundational schemas among Congo Basin hunter-gatherers. African Study Monographs, Supplementary Issue, 54, 155–169.
  8. 2018
    Bombjaková, D. The role of public speaking, ridicule, and play in cultural transmission among Mbendjele BaYaka forest hunter-gatherers. Doctoral thesis, University College London. PhD Thesis
  9. 2017
    Boesch, C., Bombjaková, D.*, Boyette, A., & Meier, A. Technical intelligence and culture: Nut cracking in humans and chimpanzees. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 163, 339–355.
    doi:10.1002/ajpa.23211

* denotes equal contribution.