1
|
Tydecks L, Hernández-Agüero JA, Böhning-Gaese K, Bremerich V, Jeschke JM, Schütt B, Zarfl C, Tockner K. Oases in the Sahara Desert-Linking biological and cultural diversity. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0290304. [PMID: 37590303 PMCID: PMC10434913 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2023] [Accepted: 08/05/2023] [Indexed: 08/19/2023] Open
Abstract
The diversity of life sensu lato comprises both biological and cultural diversity, described as "biocultural diversity." Similar to plant and animal species, cultures and languages are threatened by extinction. Since drylands are pivotal systems for nature and people alike, we use oases in the Sahara Desert as model systems for examining spatial patterns and trends of biocultural diversity. We identify both the underlying drivers of biodiversity and the potential proxies that are fundamental for understanding reciprocal linkages between biological and cultural diversity in oases. Using oases in Algeria as an example we test current indices describing and quantifying biocultural diversity and identify their limitations. Finally, we discuss follow-up research questions to better understand the underlying mechanisms that control the coupling and decoupling of biological and cultural diversity in oases.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Laura Tydecks
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany
- Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Katrin Böhning-Gaese
- Faculty of Biosciences, Goethe University, Frankfurt (Main), Germany
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt (Main), Germany
| | - Vanessa Bremerich
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany
| | - Jonathan M. Jeschke
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany
- Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Christiane Zarfl
- Department of Geosciences, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Klement Tockner
- Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Frankfurt (Main), Germany
- Faculty of Biosciences, Goethe University, Frankfurt (Main), Germany
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Cayón L, Chacon T. Diversity, multilingualism and inter-ethnic relations in the long-term history of the Upper Rio Negro region of the Amazon. Interface Focus 2023; 13:20220050. [PMID: 36659978 PMCID: PMC9732643 DOI: 10.1098/rsfs.2022.0050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2022] [Accepted: 11/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The Upper Rio Negro regional social system is made up of more than 30 languages belonging to six linguistic families. This results from socio-historical processes stretching back at least two millennia, which have built a system with different levels of autonomy and hierarchy associated with a mythical and ritual complex, and with social and linguistic exchanges. The analysis of these processes require an interdisciplinary outlook to understand the ways in which people from different linguistic families interacted and created it. More specifically, we ask how linguistic and cultural diversity have been created in the context of intense relations of multilingualism and inter-ethnic contact. To this end, we integrate perspectives from historical linguistics (regarding languages from the Tukanoan, Arawakan and Naduhup families) with archaeological data from the Amazonian past. Through this multidisciplinary approach, we seek to develop a linguistic-anthropological understanding of the dynamics shaping the region's diversity and inter-ethnic relations. We show that processes creating diversity are interrelated with changes in social histories, and are especially tied to the establishment of new forms of social organization as a result of pre-colonial inter-ethnic relations. This has led to the construction of various local multilingual ecologies connected to macro-regional processes in Amazonia.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Luis Cayón
- University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil
| | | |
Collapse
|
3
|
Van Gijn R, Norder S, Arias L, Emlen NQ, Azevedo MCBC, Caine A, Dunn S, Howard A, Julmi N, Krasnoukhova O, Stoneking M, Wiegertjes J. The social lives of isolates (and small language families): the case of the Northwest Amazon. Interface Focus 2023; 13:20220054. [PMID: 36655194 PMCID: PMC9732644 DOI: 10.1098/rsfs.2022.0054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2022] [Accepted: 11/09/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The Americas are home to patches of extraordinary linguistic (genealogical) diversity. These high-diversity areas are particularly unexpected given the recent population of the Americas. In this paper, we zoom in on one such area, the Northwest Amazon, and address the question of how the diversity in this area has persisted to the present. We contrast two hypotheses that claim opposite mechanisms for the maintenance of diversity: the isolation hypothesis suggests that isolation facilitates the preservation of diversity, while the integration hypothesis proposes that conscious identity preservation in combination with contact drives diversity maintenance. We test predictions for both hypotheses across four disciplines: biogeography, cultural anthropology, population genetics and linguistics. Our results show signs of both isolation and integration, but they mainly suggest considerable diversity in how groups of speakers have interacted with their surroundings.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rik Van Gijn
- Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands
| | - Sietze Norder
- Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands,Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science Group, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3584 CB, The Netherlands
| | - Leonardo Arias
- Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands,Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Nicholas Q. Emlen
- Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands,University of Groningen, Campus Fryslân 8911 CE, The Netherlands
| | | | - Allison Caine
- Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands,Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, 82071, Laramie, WY, USA
| | - Saskia Dunn
- Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands
| | - Austin Howard
- Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands
| | - Nora Julmi
- Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands
| | - Olga Krasnoukhova
- Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands
| | - Mark Stoneking
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany,Université Lyon 1, CNRS, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, UMR 5558, Villeurbanne, France
| | | |
Collapse
|
4
|
Blaha Pfeiler B, Skopeteas S. Sources of convergence in indigenous languages: Lexical variation in Yucatec Maya. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0268448. [PMID: 35587484 PMCID: PMC9119476 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268448] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2021] [Accepted: 04/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Linguistic variation in space reflects patterns of social interaction. Gravity models have been successfully used to capture the role of urban centers in the dissemination of innovations in the speech community along with the diffusion of variants in space. Crucially, the effects of the factors of a gravity model (distance and population size) depend on language situation and may result from different sources, in particular processes of vertical and horizontal convergence. In the present study, we investigate lexical variation in contemporary Yucatec Maya, an indigenous language of Mexico, spoken in a situation of generalized bilingualism. This language situation lacks some crucial ingredients of vertical convergence: no variety of Yucatec Maya has the status of a standard variety: the language of administration and education is Spanish (diglossia-with-bilingualism). The present study finds evidence of convergence processes that can be exclusively attributed to horizontal convergence. The lexical distance between speakers decreases in and between urban centers, variants with a large distribution are more likely in areas with a maximum of interactions with other areas. Even Spanish variants are distributed in the sample with a pattern that reveals processes of horizontal convergence: their distribution is accounted for through an areal bias (widespread in areas with a stronger exposition to Spanish) rather by influences from the urban centers (as centers of administration/education) to the rural areas in their surroundings.
Collapse
|
5
|
Abstract
It is often claimed that languages with more non-native speakers tend to become morphologically simpler, presumably because non-native speakers learn the language imperfectly. A growing number of studies support this claim, but there is a dearth of experiments that evaluate it and the suggested explanatory mechanisms. We performed a large-scale experiment which directly tested whether imperfect language learning simplifies linguistic structure and whether this effect is amplified by iterated learning. Members of 45 transmission chains, each consisting of 10 one-person generations, learned artificial mini-languages and transmitted them to the next generation. Manipulating the learning time showed that when transmission chains contained generations of imperfect learners, the decrease in morphological complexity was more pronounced than when the chains did not contain imperfect learners. The decrease was partial (complexity did not get fully eliminated) and gradual (caused by the accumulation of small simplifying changes). Simplification primarily affected double agent-marking, which is more redundant, arguably more difficult to learn and less salient than other features. The results were not affected by the number of the imperfect-learner generations in the transmission chains. Thus, we provide strong experimental evidence in support of the hypothesis that iterated imperfect learning leads to language simplification.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Aleksandrs Berdicevskis
- Department of Language and Linguistics, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Langnes, Tromsø, Norway
- * E-mail:
| | - Arturs Semenuks
- Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States of America
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Borda-de-Água L, Hubbell SP. The relative abundance of languages: Neutral and non-neutral dynamics. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0259162. [PMID: 34965265 PMCID: PMC8716027 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2021] [Accepted: 10/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Credible estimates suggest that a large number of the nearly 7000 languages in the world could go extinct this century, a prospect with profound cultural, socioeconomic, and political ramifications. Despite its importance, we still have little predictive theory for language dynamics and richness. Critical to the language extinction problem, however, is to understand the dynamics of the number of speakers of languages, the dynamics of language abundance distributions (LADs). Many regional LADs are very similar to the bell-shaped distributions of relative species abundance predicted by neutral theory in ecology. Using the tenets of neutral theory, here we show that LADs can be understood as an equilibrium or disequilibrium between stochastic rates of origination and extinction of languages. However, neutral theory does not fit some regional LADs, which can be explained if the number of speakers has grown systematically faster in some languages than others, due to cultural factors and other non-neutral processes. Only the LADs of Australia and the United States, deviate from a bell-shaped pattern. These deviations are due to the documented higher, non-equilibrium extinction rates of low-abundance languages in these countries.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Luís Borda-de-Água
- CIBIO/InBio, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Laboratório Associado, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal
- CIBIO/InBio, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Laboratório Associado, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
- BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Vairão, Portugal
- * E-mail:
| | - Stephen P. Hubbell
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
- The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
|
8
|
Abstract
This contribution theorizes the historical dynamics of so-called language isolates, languages which cannot be demonstrated to belong to any known language family. On the basis of a qualitative review of how isolates, language families or their branches lost territory to other languages through time, I develop a simple model for the genesis of isolates as a function of proximity to major geographical barriers, and pit it against an alternative view that sees them as one manifestation of linguistic diversity generally. Using a variety of statistical techniques, I test both accounts quantitatively against a worldwide dataset of language locations and distances to geographical barriers, and find support for the position that views language isolates as one manifestation of linguistic diversity generally. However, I caution that different processes which are not necessarily mutually exclusive may have shaped the present-day distribution of language isolates. These may form elements of a broader theory of language isolates in particular and language diversity in general.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Matthias Urban
- Center for Advanced Studies ‘Words, Bones, Genes, Tools', University of Tübingen, Rümelinstrasse 19-23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Abstract
Across the planet the biogeographic distribution of human cultural diversity tends to correlate positively with biodiversity. In this paper we focus on the biogeographic distribution of mammal species and human cultural diversity. We show that not only are these forms of diversity similarly distributed in space, but they both scale superlinearly with environmental production. We develop theory that explains that as environmental productivity increases the ecological kinetics of diversity increases faster than expected because more complex environments are also more interactive. Using biogeographic databases of the global distributions of mammal species and human cultures we test a series of hypotheses derived from this theory and find support for each. For both mammals and cultures, we show that (1) both forms of diversity increase exponentially with ecological kinetics; (2) the kinetics of diversity is faster than the kinetics of productivity; (3) diversity scales superlinearly with environmental productivity; and (4) the kinetics of diversity is faster in increasingly productive environments. This biogeographic convergence is particularly striking because while the dynamics of biological and cultural evolution may be similar in principle the underlying mechanisms and time scales are very different. However, a common currency underlying all forms of diversity is ecological kinetics; the temperature-dependent fluxes of energy and biotic interactions that sustain all forms of life at all levels of organization. Diversity begets diversity in mammal species and human cultures because ecological kinetics drives superlinear scaling with environmental productivity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Marcus J Hamilton
- Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA.
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA.
| | - Robert S Walker
- Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
| | | |
Collapse
|
10
|
Pollegioni P, Lungo SD, Müller R, Woeste KE, Chiocchini F, Clark J, Hemery GE, Mapelli S, Villani F, Malvolti ME, Mattioni C. Biocultural diversity of common walnut ( Juglans regia L.) and sweet chestnut ( Castanea sativa Mill.) across Eurasia. Ecol Evol 2020; 10:11192-11216. [PMID: 33144959 PMCID: PMC7593191 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.6761] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2020] [Revised: 08/05/2020] [Accepted: 08/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
A biocultural diversity approach integrates plant biology and germplasm dispersal processes with human cultural diversity. An increasing number of studies have identified cultural factors and ethnolinguistic barriers as the main drivers of the genetic diversity in crop plants. Little is known about how anthropogenic processes have affected the evolution of tree crops over the entire time scale of their interaction with humans. In Asia and the Mediterranean, common walnut (Juglans regia L.) and sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) have been economically and culturally important crops for millennia; there, in ancient times, they were invested with symbolic and religious significance. In this study, we detected a partial geographic congruence between the ethno-linguistic repartition of human communities, the distribution of major cognitive sets of word-related terms, and the inferred genetic clusters of common walnut and sweet chestnut populations across Eurasia. Our data indicated that isolation by distance processes, landscape heterogeneity and cultural boundaries might have promoted simultaneously human language diversification and walnut/chestnut differentiation across the same geographic macro-regions. Hotspots of common walnut and sweet chestnut genetic diversity were associated with areas of linguistic enrichment in the Himalayas, Trans-Caucasus, and Pyrenees Mountains, where common walnuts and sweet chestnuts had sustained ties to human culture since the Early Bronze Age. Our multidisciplinary approach supported the indirect and direct role of humans in shaping walnut and chestnut diversity across Eurasia from the EBA (e.g., Persian Empire and Greek-Roman colonization) until the first evidence of active selection and clonal propagation by grafting of both species. Our findings highlighted the benefit of an efficient integration of the relevant cultural factors in the classical genome (G) × environmental (E) model and the urgency of a systematic application of the biocultural diversity concept in the reconstruction of the evolutionary history of tree species.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Paola Pollegioni
- Research Institute on Terrestrial EcosystemsNational Research CouncilPoranoTerniItaly
| | - Stefano Del Lungo
- The Institute of Cultural Heritage ScienceNational Research CouncilTito ScaloPotenzaItaly
| | - Ruth Müller
- Unit EntomologyDepartment of Biomedical SciencesInstitute of Tropical MedicineAntwerpBelgium
| | - Keith E. Woeste
- Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration CenterDepartment of Forestry and Natural ResourcesU.S.D.A. Forest ServicePurdue UniversityWest LafayetteINUSA
| | - Francesca Chiocchini
- Research Institute on Terrestrial EcosystemsNational Research CouncilPoranoTerniItaly
| | - Jo Clark
- Future Tree TrustStroudGloucestershireUK
| | | | - Sergio Mapelli
- Institute of Agricultural Biology and BiotechnologyNational Research CouncilMilanItaly
| | - Fiorella Villani
- Research Institute on Terrestrial EcosystemsNational Research CouncilPoranoTerniItaly
| | - Maria Emilia Malvolti
- Research Institute on Terrestrial EcosystemsNational Research CouncilPoranoTerniItaly
| | - Claudia Mattioni
- Research Institute on Terrestrial EcosystemsNational Research CouncilPoranoTerniItaly
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Beyer R, Singarayer JS, Stock JT, Manica A. Environmental conditions do not predict diversification rates in the Bantu languages. Heliyon 2019; 5:e02630. [PMID: 31692645 PMCID: PMC6806388 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2019] [Revised: 09/26/2019] [Accepted: 10/08/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The global distribution of language diversity mirrors that of several variables related to ecosystem productivity. It has been argued that this is driven by the size of social networks, which tend to be larger in harsher climates to ensure food security, leading to reduced language divergence. Is this pattern purely synchronic, or is there also a quantifiable relationship between environmental conditions and language diversification over time? We used a spatio-temporal phylogeny of the Bantu language family to estimate local diversification rates at the times and locations of language divergence. We compared these data against spatially-explicit reconstructions of several palaeoclimate and palaeovegetation variables (mean annual temperature and the temperature of the coldest and warmest quarter, annual precipitation and the precipitation of the wettest and driest quarter, growing degree days, the length of the growing season, and net primary production), to investigate a potential link between local environmental factors and diversification rates in the Bantu languages. A regression analysis does not suggest a statistically significant relationship between climatic or ecological variables and linguistic diversification over time. We find a strong positive correlation between pairwise linguistic and geographic distances in the Bantu languages, arguing for a dominant role of isolation as a result of the rapid Bantu expansion that might have overwhelmed any potential influence of local environmental factors.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Robert Beyer
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, United Kingdom
- PAVE Research Group, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, United Kingdom
| | - Joy S. Singarayer
- Department of Meteorology and Centre for Past Climate Change, University of Reading, Whiteknights campus, PO Box 243, Reading, RG6 6BB, United Kingdom
| | - Jay T. Stock
- PAVE Research Group, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, United Kingdom
- Department of Anthropology, Western University, London, Ontario, N6A 5C2, Canada
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10. D-07745 Jena, Germany
| | - Andrea Manica
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Huisman JLA, Majid A, van Hout R. The geographical configuration of a language area influences linguistic diversity. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0217363. [PMID: 31188851 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217363] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2019] [Accepted: 05/09/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Like the transfer of genetic variation through gene flow, language changes constantly as a result of its use in human interaction. Contact between speakers is most likely to happen when they are close in space, time, and social setting. Here, we investigated the role of geographical configuration in this process by studying linguistic diversity in Japan, which comprises a large connected mainland (less isolation, more potential contact) and smaller island clusters of the Ryukyuan archipelago (more isolation, less potential contact). We quantified linguistic diversity using dialectometric methods, and performed regression analyses to assess the extent to which distance in space and time predict contemporary linguistic diversity. We found that language diversity in general increases as geographic distance increases and as time passes—as with biodiversity. Moreover, we found that (I) for mainland languages, linguistic diversity is most strongly related to geographic distance—a so-called isolation-by-distance pattern, and that (II) for island languages, linguistic diversity reflects the time since varieties separated and diverged—an isolation-by-colonisation pattern. Together, these results confirm previous findings that (linguistic) diversity is shaped by distance, but also goes beyond this by demonstrating the critical role of geographic configuration.
Collapse
|
13
|
Abstract
Language diversity is distributed unevenly over the globe. Intriguingly, patterns of language diversity resemble biodiversity patterns, leading to suggestions that similar mechanisms may underlie both linguistic and biological diversification. Here we present the first global analysis of language diversity that compares the relative importance of two key ecological mechanisms - isolation and ecological risk - after correcting for spatial autocorrelation and phylogenetic non-independence. We find significant effects of climate on language diversity, consistent with the ecological risk hypothesis that areas of high year-round productivity lead to more languages by supporting human cultural groups with smaller distributions. Climate has a much stronger effect on language diversity than landscape features, such as altitudinal range and river density, which might contribute to isolation of cultural groups. The association between biodiversity and language diversity appears to be an incidental effect of their covariation with climate, rather than a causal link between the two.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xia Hua
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Canberra ACT, 0200, Australia.
- Macroevolution and Macroecology Group, Division of Ecology & Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra ACT, 0200, Australia.
| | - Simon J Greenhill
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Canberra ACT, 0200, Australia
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, D-07743, Jena, Germany
| | - Marcel Cardillo
- Macroevolution and Macroecology Group, Division of Ecology & Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra ACT, 0200, Australia
| | - Hilde Schneemann
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Canberra ACT, 0200, Australia
- Macroevolution and Macroecology Group, Division of Ecology & Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra ACT, 0200, Australia
- Meme Programme, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Lindell Bromham
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Canberra ACT, 0200, Australia
- Macroevolution and Macroecology Group, Division of Ecology & Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra ACT, 0200, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Pacheco Coelho MT, Pereira EB, Haynie HJ, Rangel TF, Kavanagh P, Kirby KR, Greenhill SJ, Bowern C, Gray RD, Colwell RK, Evans N, Gavin MC. Drivers of geographical patterns of North American language diversity. Proc Biol Sci 2019; 286:20190242. [PMID: 30914010 PMCID: PMC6452074 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0242] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2019] [Accepted: 03/06/2019] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Although many hypotheses have been proposed to explain why humans speak so many languages and why languages are unevenly distributed across the globe, the factors that shape geographical patterns of cultural and linguistic diversity remain poorly understood. Prior research has tended to focus on identifying universal predictors of language diversity, without accounting for how local factors and multiple predictors interact. Here, we use a unique combination of path analysis, mechanistic simulation modelling, and geographically weighted regression to investigate the broadly described, but poorly understood, spatial pattern of language diversity in North America. We show that the ecological drivers of language diversity are not universal or entirely direct. The strongest associations imply a role for previously developed hypothesized drivers such as population density, resource diversity, and carrying capacity with group size limits. The predictive power of this web of factors varies over space from regions where our model predicts approximately 86% of the variation in diversity, to areas where less than 40% is explained.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Marco Túlio Pacheco Coelho
- Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
- Departamento de Ecologia, ICB, Universidade Federal de Goiás, 74.690-900 Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil
| | - Elisa Barreto Pereira
- Departamento de Ecologia, ICB, Universidade Federal de Goiás, 74.690-900 Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil
| | - Hannah J. Haynie
- Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Thiago F. Rangel
- Departamento de Ecologia, ICB, Universidade Federal de Goiás, 74.690-900 Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil
| | - Patrick Kavanagh
- Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Kathryn R. Kirby
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Simon J. Greenhill
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
- CoEDL (ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language), Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Claire Bowern
- Department of Linguistics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Russell D. Gray
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Robert K. Colwell
- Departamento de Ecologia, ICB, Universidade Federal de Goiás, 74.690-900 Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
- University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
| | - Nicholas Evans
- CoEDL (ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language), Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Michael C. Gavin
- Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Bentz C, Dediu D, Verkerk A, Jäger G. The evolution of language families is shaped by the environment beyond neutral drift. Nat Hum Behav 2018; 2:816-821. [PMID: 31558817 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-018-0457-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2017] [Accepted: 09/24/2018] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
There are more than 7,000 languages spoken in the world today1. It has been argued that the natural and social environment of languages drives this diversity2-13. However, a fundamental question is how strong are environmental pressures, and does neutral drift suffice as a mechanism to explain diversification? We estimate the phylogenetic signals of geographic dimensions, distance to water, climate and population size on more than 6,000 phylogenetic trees of 46 language families. Phylogenetic signals of environmental factors are generally stronger than expected under the null hypothesis of no relationship with the shape of family trees. Importantly, they are also-in most cases-not compatible with neutral drift models of constant-rate change across the family tree branches. Our results suggest that language diversification is driven by further adaptive and non-adaptive pressures. Language diversity cannot be understood without modelling the pressures that physical, ecological and social factors exert on language users in different environments across the globe.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Christian Bentz
- Department of General Linguistics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. .,DFG Center for Advanced Studies: 'Words, Bones, Genes, Tools', University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
| | - Dan Dediu
- Collegium de Lyon, Institut d'Études Avancées, Lyon, France.,Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | | | - Gerhard Jäger
- Department of General Linguistics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.,DFG Center for Advanced Studies: 'Words, Bones, Genes, Tools', University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Honkola T, Ruokolainen K, Syrjänen KJJ, Leino UP, Tammi I, Wahlberg N, Vesakoski O. Evolution within a language: environmental differences contribute to divergence of dialect groups. BMC Evol Biol 2018; 18:132. [PMID: 30176802 PMCID: PMC6122686 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-018-1238-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2017] [Accepted: 08/13/2018] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Background The processes leading to the diversity of over 7000 present-day languages have been the subject of scholarly interest for centuries. Several factors have been suggested to contribute to the spatial segregation of speaker populations and the subsequent linguistic divergence. However, their formal testing and the quantification of their relative roles is still missing. We focussed here on the early stages of the linguistic divergence process, that is, the divergence of dialects, with a special focus on the ecological settings of the speaker populations. We adopted conceptual and statistical approaches from biological microevolution and parallelled intra-lingual variation with genetic variation within a species. We modelled the roles of geographical distance, differences in environmental and cultural conditions and in administrative history on linguistic divergence at two different levels: between municipal dialects (cf. in biology, between individuals) and between dialect groups (cf. in biology, between populations). Results We found that geographical distance and administrative history were important in separating municipal dialects. However, environmental and cultural differences contributed markedly to the divergence of dialect groups. In biology, increase in genetic differences between populations together with environmental differences may suggest genetic differentiation of populations through adaptation to the local environment. However, our interpretation of this result is not that language itself adapts to the environment. Instead, it is based on Homo sapiens being affected by its environment, and its capability to adapt culturally to various environmental conditions. The differences in cultural adaptations arising from environmental heterogeneity could have acted as nonphysical barriers and limited the contacts and communication between groups. As a result, linguistic differentiation may emerge over time in those speaker populations which are, at least partially, separated. Conclusions Given that the dialects of isolated speaker populations may eventually evolve into different languages, our result suggests that cultural adaptation to local environment and the associated isolation of speaker populations have contributed to the emergence of the global patterns of linguistic diversity. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12862-018-1238-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Terhi Honkola
- Department of Biology, FI-20014 University of Turku, Turku, Finland. .,Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics, Jakobi 2, University of Tartu, 51014, Tartu, Estonia.
| | - Kalle Ruokolainen
- Department of Geography and Geology, FI-20014 University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Kaj J J Syrjänen
- Faculty of Communication Sciences, FI-33014 University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland
| | - Unni-Päivä Leino
- Faculty of Communication Sciences, FI-33014 University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland
| | - Ilpo Tammi
- Faculty of Communication Sciences, FI-33014 University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.,Council of Tampere Region, FI-33201 Tampere, Tampere, Finland
| | - Niklas Wahlberg
- Department of Biology, FI-20014 University of Turku, Turku, Finland.,Department of Biology, Sölvegatan 37, Lund University, 223 62, Lund, Sweden
| | - Outi Vesakoski
- Department of Biology, FI-20014 University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| |
Collapse
|
17
|
Gavin MC, Kavanagh PH, Haynie HJ, Bowern C, Ember CR, Gray RD, Jordan FM, Kirby KR, Kushnick G, Low BS, Vilela B, Botero CA. The global geography of human subsistence. R Soc Open Sci 2018; 5:171897. [PMID: 30839689 PMCID: PMC6170550 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.171897] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2017] [Accepted: 09/03/2018] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
How humans obtain food has dramatically reshaped ecosystems and altered both the trajectory of human history and the characteristics of human societies. Our species' subsistence varies widely, from predominantly foraging strategies, to plant-based agriculture and animal husbandry. The extent to which environmental, social and historical factors have driven such variation is currently unclear. Prior attempts to resolve long-standing debates on this topic have been hampered by an over-reliance on narrative arguments, small and geographically narrow samples, and by contradictory findings. Here we overcome these methodological limitations by applying multi-model inference tools developed in biogeography to a global dataset (818 societies). Although some have argued that unique conditions and events determine each society's particular subsistence strategy, we find strong support for a general global pattern in which a limited set of environmental, social and historical factors predicts an essential characteristic of all human groups: how we obtain our food.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michael C. Gavin
- Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Patrick H. Kavanagh
- Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Hannah J. Haynie
- Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Claire Bowern
- Department of Linguistics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Carol R. Ember
- Human Relations Area Files, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Russell D. Gray
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Fiona M. Jordan
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Kathryn R. Kirby
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Geoff Kushnick
- School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Bobbi S. Low
- School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Bruno Vilela
- Department of Biology, Washington University, St Louis, MO, USA
| | | |
Collapse
|
18
|
Derungs C, Köhl M, Weibel R, Bickel B. Environmental factors drive language density more in food-producing than in hunter-gatherer populations. Proc Biol Sci 2018; 285:rspb.2017.2851. [PMID: 30135170 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.2851] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2017] [Accepted: 07/18/2018] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Linguistic diversity is a key aspect of human population diversity and shapes much of our social and cognitive lives. To a considerable extent, the distribution of this diversity is driven by environmental factors such as climate or coast access. An unresolved question is whether the relevant factors have remained constant over time. Here, we address this question at a global scale. We approximate the difference between pre- versus post-Neolithic populations by the difference between modern hunter-gatherer versus food-producing populations. Using a novel geostatistical approach of estimating language and language family densities, we show that environmental-chiefly climate factors-have driven the language density of food-producing populations considerably more strongly than the language density of hunter-gatherer populations. Current evidence suggests that the population dynamics of modern hunter-gatherers is very similar to that of what can be reconstructed from the Palaeolithic record. Based on this, we cautiously infer that the impact of environmental factors on language densities underwent a substantial change with the transition to agriculture. After this transition, the environmental impact on language diversity in food-producing populations has remained relatively stable since it can also be detected-albeit in slightly weaker form-in models that capture the reduced linguistic diversity during large-scale language spreads in the Mid-Holocene.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Curdin Derungs
- URPP Language and Space, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Martina Köhl
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Robert Weibel
- URPP Language and Space, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Balthasar Bickel
- URPP Language and Space, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland .,Department of Comparative Linguistics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
19
|
Contreras Kallens P, Dale R, Christiansen MH. Linguistic diversity and individual variation: Comment on "Rethinking foundations of language from a multidisciplinary perspective" by T. Gong et al. Phys Life Rev 2018; 26-27:164-166. [PMID: 30054200 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2018.07.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2018] [Accepted: 07/18/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Rick Dale
- Department of Communication, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States of America
| | | |
Collapse
|
20
|
Greenhill SJ, Hua X, Welsh CF, Schneemann H, Bromham L. Population Size and the Rate of Language Evolution: A Test Across Indo-European, Austronesian, and Bantu Languages. Front Psychol 2018; 9:576. [PMID: 29755387 PMCID: PMC5934942 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00576] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2017] [Accepted: 04/05/2018] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
What role does speaker population size play in shaping rates of language evolution? There has been little consensus on the expected relationship between rates and patterns of language change and speaker population size, with some predicting faster rates of change in smaller populations, and others expecting greater change in larger populations. The growth of comparative databases has allowed population size effects to be investigated across a wide range of language groups, with mixed results. One recent study of a group of Polynesian languages revealed greater rates of word gain in larger populations and greater rates of word loss in smaller populations. However, that test was restricted to 20 closely related languages from small Oceanic islands. Here, we test if this pattern is a general feature of language evolution across a larger and more diverse sample of languages from both continental and island populations. We analyzed comparative language data for 153 pairs of closely-related sister languages from three of the world's largest language families: Austronesian, Indo-European, and Niger-Congo. We find some evidence that rates of word loss are significantly greater in smaller languages for the Indo-European comparisons, but we find no significant patterns in the other two language families. These results suggest either that the influence of population size on rates and patterns of language evolution is not universal, or that it is sufficiently weak that it may be overwhelmed by other influences in some cases. Further investigation, for a greater number of language comparisons and a wider range of language features, may determine which of these explanations holds true.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Simon J Greenhill
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.,Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (MPG), Jena, Germany
| | - Xia Hua
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.,Research School of Biology, Macroevolution and Macroecology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Caela F Welsh
- Research School of Biology, Macroevolution and Macroecology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Hilde Schneemann
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.,Research School of Biology, Macroevolution and Macroecology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Lindell Bromham
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.,Research School of Biology, Macroevolution and Macroecology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
21
|
Abstract
This paper discusses the maximum robustness approach for studying cases of adaptation in language. We live in an age where we have more data on more languages than ever before, and more data to link it with from other domains. This should make it easier to test hypotheses involving adaptation, and also to spot new patterns that might be explained by adaptation. However, there is not much discussion of the overall approach to research in this area. There are outstanding questions about how to formalize theories, what the criteria are for directing research and how to integrate results from different methods into a clear assessment of a hypothesis. This paper addresses some of those issues by suggesting an approach which is causal, incremental and robust. It illustrates the approach with reference to a recent claim that dry environments select against the use of precise contrasts in pitch. Study 1 replicates a previous analysis of the link between humidity and lexical tone with an alternative dataset and finds that it is not robust. Study 2 performs an analysis with a continuous measure of tone and finds no significant correlation. Study 3 addresses a more recent analysis of the link between humidity and vowel use and finds that it is robust, though the effect size is small and the robustness of the measurement of vowel use is low. Methodological robustness of the general theory is addressed by suggesting additional approaches including iterated learning, a historical case study, corpus studies, and studying individual speech.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Seán G Roberts
- EXCD Lab, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
22
|
Perrault N, Farrell MJ, Davies TJ. Tongues on the EDGE: language preservation priorities based on threat and lexical distinctiveness. R Soc Open Sci 2017; 4:171218. [PMID: 29308253 PMCID: PMC5750020 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.171218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2017] [Accepted: 11/10/2017] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
Languages are being lost at rates exceeding the global loss of biodiversity. With the extinction of a language we lose irreplaceable dimensions of culture and the insight it provides on human history and the evolution of linguistic diversity. When setting conservation goals, biologists give higher priority to species likely to go extinct. Recent methods now integrate information on species evolutionary relationships to prioritize the conservation of those with a few close relatives. Advances in the construction of language trees allow us to use these methods to develop language preservation priorities that minimize loss of linguistic diversity. The evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered (EDGE) metric, used in conservation biology, accounts for a species' originality (evolutionary distinctiveness-ED) and its likelihood of extinction (global endangerment-GE). Here, we use a similar framework to inform priorities for language preservation by generating rankings for 350 Austronesian languages. Kavalan, Tanibili, Waropen and Sengseng obtained the highest EDGE scores, while Xârâcùù (Canala), Nengone and Palauan are among the most linguistically distinct, but are not currently threatened. We further provide a way of dealing with incomplete trees, a common issue for both species and language trees.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - T. Jonathan Davies
- McGill University, Department of Biology, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- African Centre for DNA Barcoding, Department of Botany and Plant Biotechnology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Author for correspondence: T. Jonathan Davies e-mail:
| |
Collapse
|
23
|
McClanahan TR, Rankin PS. Geography of conservation spending, biodiversity, and culture. Conserv Biol 2016; 30:1089-1101. [PMID: 26991737 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12720] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2015] [Accepted: 03/08/2016] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
We used linear and multivariate models to examine the associations between geography, biodiversity, per capita economic output, national spending on conservation, governance, and cultural traits in 55 countries. Cultural traits and social metrics of modernization correlated positively with national spending on conservation. The global distribution of this spending culture was poorly aligned with the distribution of biodiversity. Specifically, biodiversity was greater in the tropics where cultures tended to spend relatively less on conservation and tended to have higher collectivism, formalized and hierarchical leadership, and weaker governance. Consequently, nations lacking social traits frequently associated with modernization, environmentalism, and conservation spending have the largest component of Earth's biodiversity. This has significant implications for setting policies and priorities for resource management given that biological diversity is rapidly disappearing and cultural traits change slowly. Therefore, we suggest natural resource management adapt to and use characteristics of existing social organization rather than wait for or promote social values associated with conservation spending. Supporting biocultural traditions, engaging leaders to increase conservation commitments, cross-national efforts that complement attributes of cultures, and avoiding interference with nature may work best to conserve nature in collective and hierarchical societies. Spending in modernized nations may be a symbolic response to a symptom of economic development and environmental degradation, and here conservation actions need to ensure that biodiversity is not being lost.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- T R McClanahan
- Wildlife Conservation Society, Marine Programs, Bronx, NY, 10460, U.S.A
| | - P S Rankin
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, School of Biological Sciences, and The Life Course Centre, Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, 4072, Queensland, Australia.
| |
Collapse
|
24
|
Kirby KR, Gray RD, Greenhill SJ, Jordan FM, Gomes-Ng S, Bibiko HJ, Blasi DE, Botero CA, Bowern C, Ember CR, Leehr D, Low BS, McCarter J, Divale W, Gavin MC. D-PLACE: A Global Database of Cultural, Linguistic and Environmental Diversity. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0158391. [PMID: 27391016 PMCID: PMC4938595 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158391] [Citation(s) in RCA: 89] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2016] [Accepted: 05/09/2016] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
From the foods we eat and the houses we construct, to our religious practices and political organization, to who we can marry and the types of games we teach our children, the diversity of cultural practices in the world is astounding. Yet, our ability to visualize and understand this diversity is limited by the ways it has been documented and shared: on a culture-by-culture basis, in locally-told stories or difficult-to-access repositories. In this paper we introduce D-PLACE, the Database of Places, Language, Culture, and Environment. This expandable and open-access database (accessible at https://d-place.org) brings together a dispersed corpus of information on the geography, language, culture, and environment of over 1400 human societies. We aim to enable researchers to investigate the extent to which patterns in cultural diversity are shaped by different forces, including shared history, demographics, migration/diffusion, cultural innovations, and environmental and ecological conditions. We detail how D-PLACE helps to overcome four common barriers to understanding these forces: i) location of relevant cultural data, (ii) linking data from distinct sources using diverse ethnonyms, (iii) variable time and place foci for data, and (iv) spatial and historical dependencies among cultural groups that present challenges for analysis. D-PLACE facilitates the visualisation of relationships among cultural groups and between people and their environments, with results downloadable as tables, on a map, or on a linguistic tree. We also describe how D-PLACE can be used for exploratory, predictive, and evolutionary analyses of cultural diversity by a range of users, from members of the worldwide public interested in contrasting their own cultural practices with those of other societies, to researchers using large-scale computational phylogenetic analyses to study cultural evolution. In summary, we hope that D-PLACE will enable new lines of investigation into the major drivers of cultural change and global patterns of cultural diversity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kathryn R Kirby
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.,Department of Geography & Planning, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Russell D Gray
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.,School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.,ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Simon J Greenhill
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.,ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Fiona M Jordan
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.,Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | | | - Hans-Jörg Bibiko
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Damián E Blasi
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.,Department of Comparative Linguistics, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.,Psycholinguistics Laboratory, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Carlos A Botero
- Department of Biology, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO, United States of America
| | - Claire Bowern
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.,Department of Linguistics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States of America
| | - Carol R Ember
- Human Relations Area Files, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States of America
| | - Dan Leehr
- Center for Genomic and Computational Biology, Duke University, Durham, United States of America
| | - Bobbi S Low
- University of Michigan School of Natural Resources & Environment, Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America.,University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America
| | - Joe McCarter
- Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024, United States of America
| | - William Divale
- York College, City University of New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Michael C Gavin
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.,Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States of America
| |
Collapse
|
25
|
Hidayati S, Franco FM, Bussmann RW. Ready for phase 5 - current status of ethnobiology in Southeast Asia. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 2015; 11:17. [PMID: 25888877 PMCID: PMC4342206 DOI: 10.1186/s13002-015-0005-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2014] [Accepted: 01/29/2015] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Southeast Asia is known for its rich linguistic, cultural and biological diversity. While ethnobiology in the west has benefitted greatly from intellectual and methodological advances over the last decades, the status of Southeast Asian ethnobiology is largely unknown. This study aims to provide an analysis of the current status of ethnobiology in Southeast Asia and outlines possibilities for future advancements. METHODS We accessed papers cited in the Scopus and Web of Science databases for the period of 1960 to 2014 using the current as well as previous names of the 11 Southeast Asian countries and various disciplines of ethnobiology as key words. We juxtaposed the number of publications from each country against its number of indigenous groups and languages, to see if ethnobiology research has addressed this full spectrum of ethnical diversity. The available data for the last ten years was analysed according to the five phases concept to understand the nature of studies dominating Southeast Asian ethnobiology. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS A total number of 312 publications were recorded in the databases for the period 1960-2014. Indonesia ranks highest (93 studies), followed by Thailand (68), Malaysia (58) Philippines (42), Vietnam (31), Laos (29), and other Southeast Asian countries (44). A strong correlation was found between the number of publications for each country, the number of indigenous groups, and the number of endangered languages. Comparing the data available for the period 2005-2009 with 2010-2014, we found a strong increase in the number of phase 5 publications. However, papers with bioprospecting focus were also on the rise, especially in Malaysia. Our study indicates that ethnobiologists still need to realise the full potential of the Biocultural Diversity of Southeast Asia, and that there is a strong need to focus more on socially relevant research.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Syafitri Hidayati
- Curtin Sarawak Research Institute, Curtin University Sarawak Malaysia, CDT 250, 98009, Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia.
| | - F Merlin Franco
- Curtin Sarawak Research Institute, Curtin University Sarawak Malaysia, CDT 250, 98009, Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia.
| | - Rainer W Bussmann
- William L. Brown Center, Missouri Botanical Garden, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO, 63166-0299, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
26
|
Amano T, Sandel B, Eager H, Bulteau E, Svenning JC, Dalsgaard B, Rahbek C, Davies RG, Sutherland WJ. Global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk. Proc Biol Sci 2014; 281:20141574. [PMID: 25186001 PMCID: PMC4173687 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.1574] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2014] [Accepted: 08/06/2014] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Many of the world's languages face serious risk of extinction. Efforts to prevent this cultural loss are severely constrained by a poor understanding of the geographical patterns and drivers of extinction risk. We quantify the global distribution of language extinction risk-represented by small range and speaker population sizes and rapid declines in the number of speakers-and identify the underlying environmental and socioeconomic drivers. We show that both small range and speaker population sizes are associated with rapid declines in speaker numbers, causing 25% of existing languages to be threatened based on criteria used for species. Language range and population sizes are small in tropical and arctic regions, particularly in areas with high rainfall, high topographic heterogeneity and/or rapidly growing human populations. By contrast, recent speaker declines have mainly occurred at high latitudes and are strongly linked to high economic growth. Threatened languages are numerous in the tropics, the Himalayas and northwestern North America. These results indicate that small-population languages remaining in economically developed regions are seriously threatened by continued speaker declines. However, risks of future language losses are especially high in the tropics and in the Himalayas, as these regions harbour many small-population languages and are undergoing rapid economic growth.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tatsuya Amano
- Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
| | - Brody Sandel
- Section for Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000 C, Denmark
| | - Heidi Eager
- Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2HU, UK Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Corson Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-2701, USA
| | - Edouard Bulteau
- Ecole Polytechnique, Route de Saclay, 91120 Palaiseau, France
| | - Jens-Christian Svenning
- Section for Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000 C, Denmark
| | - Bo Dalsgaard
- Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Carsten Rahbek
- Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Richard G Davies
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - William J Sutherland
- Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
| |
Collapse
|
27
|
Abstract
One of the most well studied ecological patterns is Rapoport's rule, which posits that the geographical extent of species ranges increases at higher latitudes. However, studies to date have been limited in their geographic scope and results have been equivocal. In turn, much debate exists over potential links between Rapoport's rule and latitudinal patterns in species richness. Humans collectively speak nearly 7000 different languages, which are spread unevenly across the globe, with loci in the tropics. Causes of this skewed distribution have received only limited study. We analyze the extent of Rapoport's rule in human languages at a global scale and within each region of the globe separately. We test the relationship between Rapoport's rule and the richness of languages spoken in different regions. We also explore the frequency distribution of language-range sizes. The language-range area distribution is strongly right-skewed, with 87% of languages having range areas less than 10,000 km(2), and only nine languages with range areas over 1,000,000 km(2). At a global scale, language-range extents and areas are positively correlated with latitude. At a global scale and in five of the six regions examined, language-range extent and language-range area are strongly correlated with language richness. Our results point to group boundary formation as a critical mediator of the relationship between Rapoport's rule and diversity patterns. Where strong group boundaries limit range overlap, as is the case with human languages, and range sizes increase with latitude, latitudinal richness gradients may result.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michael C. Gavin
- Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States of America
| | - John Richard Stepp
- Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Turlington Hall, Gainesville, FL, United States of America
| |
Collapse
|
28
|
Lee S, Hasegawa T. Oceanic barriers promote language diversification in the Japanese Islands. J Evol Biol 2014; 27:1905-12. [PMID: 24953224 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.12442] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2014] [Accepted: 05/30/2014] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Good barriers make good languages. Scholars have long speculated that geographical barriers impede linguistic contact between speech communities and promote language diversification in a manner similar to the process of allopatric speciation. This hypothesis, however, has seldom been tested systematically and quantitatively. Here, we adopt methods from evolutionary biology and attempt to quantify the influence of oceanic barriers on the degree of lexical diversity in the Japanese Islands. Measuring the degree of beta diversity from basic vocabularies, we find that geographical proximity and, more importantly, isolation by surrounding ocean, independently explains a significant proportion of lexical variation across Japonic languages. Further analyses indicate that our results are neither a by-product of using a distance matrix derived from a Bayesian language phylogeny nor an epiphenomenon of accelerated evolutionary rates in languages spoken by small communities. Moreover, we find that the effect of oceanic barriers is reproducible with the Ainu languages, indicating that our analytic approach as well as the results can be generalized beyond Japonic language family. The findings we report here are the first quantitative evidence that physical barriers formed by ocean can influence language diversification and points to an intriguing common mechanism between linguistic and biological evolution.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- S Lee
- Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | | |
Collapse
|
29
|
Abstract
Global linguistic diversity (LD) displays highly heterogeneous distribution patterns. Though the origin of the latter is not yet fully understood, remarkable parallelisms with biodiversity distribution suggest that environmental variables should play an essential role in their emergence. In an effort to construct a broad framework to explain world LD and to systematize the available data, we have investigated the significance of 14 variables: landscape roughness, altitude, river density, distance to lakes, seasonal maximum, average and minimum temperature, precipitation and vegetation, and population density. Landscape roughness and river density are the only two variables that universally affect LD. Overall, the considered set accounts for up to 80% of African LD, a figure that decreases for the joint Asia, Australia and the Pacific (69%), Europe (56%) and the Americas (53%). Differences among those regions can be traced down to a few variables that permit an interpretation of their current states of LD. Our processed datasets can be applied to the analysis of correlations in other similar heterogeneous patterns with a broad spatial distribution, the clearest example being biological diversity. The statistical method we have used can be understood as a tool for cross-comparison among geographical regions, including the prediction of spatial diversity in alternative scenarios or in changing environments.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jacob Bock Axelsen
- Centro de Astrobiología, INTA-CSIC, , Ctra. de Ajalvir km 4, Madrid, Torrejón de Ardoz 28850, Spain
| | | |
Collapse
|
30
|
Abstract
Known for centuries, the geographical pattern of increasing biodiversity from the poles to the equator is one of the most pervasive features of life on Earth. A longstanding goal of biogeographers has been to understand the primary factors that generate and maintain high diversity in the tropics. Many 'historical' and 'ecological' hypotheses have been proposed and debated, but there is still little consensus. Recent discussions have centred around two main phenomena: phylogenetic niche conservatism and ecological productivity. These two factors play important roles, but accumulating theoretical and empirical studies suggest that the single most important factor is kinetics: the temperature dependence of ecological and evolutionary rates. The relatively high temperatures in the tropics generate and maintain high diversity because 'the Red Queen runs faster when she is hot'.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- James H Brown
- Department of Biology, University of New MexicoAlbuquerque, NM, 87131, USA
- Correspondence: James H. Brown, Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA., E-mail:
| |
Collapse
|