Angela
Elite member
- Messages
- 21,823
- Reaction score
- 12,329
- Points
- 113
- Ethnic group
- Italian
Interesting stuff.
See: Bortolini et al
http://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2016/12/02/091074.full.pdf
"Observable patterns of cultural variation are consistently intertwined with demic movements,cultural diffusion, and adaptation to different ecological contexts (Cavalli-Sforza andFeldman 1981; Boyd and Richerson 1985). The quantitative study of gene-culture co-evolutionhas focused in particular on the mechanisms responsible for change in frequency and attributesof cultural traits, on the spread of cultural information through demic and cultural diffusion,and on detecting relationships between genetic and cultural lineages. Here, for the first time,we make use of worldwide whole-genome sequences (Pagani et al. 2016) to assess the impactof demic diffusion on cultural diversity, focusing on the variability observed in folktale traditions(N=596) (Uther 2004) in Eurasia and Africa. We show that at small geographic scales(<=5000 km) there is a strong correlation between folktale and genomic distance when theeffect of geography is corrected, while geographic distance has no independent effect on thedistribution of folkloric narratives at the same spatial scale. This points to demic processes(i.e. population movement and re- placement) as the main driver of folktale transmission atlimited geographic ranges. The role of population movements becomes more apparent whenregions characterized by episodes of directional expansions, such as the Neolithization of WestEurasia, are examined. Furthermore, we identify 89 individual tales which are likely to be predominantlytransmitted through demic diffusion, and locate putative focal areas for a subsetof them."
"One recent studysuggested that the distributions of a substantial number of fairy tales shared among Indo-Europeanpopulations were more consistent with linguistic relationships than their geographical proximity,suggesting they were inherited from common ancestral populations."
" However, when consideredseparately, AIC ∆s (SI1 Section 3) indicate that genetic distance outperforms geographicdistance, with both Akaike weights and likelihoods confirming that genomic variability has a highergoodness-of-fit than geography alone."
"The most widespread or "popular" folktales which do not show any evidence of demic transmissioncan be grouped into four main focal areas. Some of these tales possibly started to be diffusedmostly via cultural transmission from eastern Europe (such as ATU155, The Ungrateful Snake Returned to Captivity; Figure S1-6-I a), while others are more probably starting their journeyfrom Caucasus (Figure S1-6-I f). Examples of the latter are ATU400 "The Man on a Quest for HisLost Wife", ATU480 "The Kind and Unkind Girls", ATU531 "The Clever Horse", and ATU560"The Magic Ring". Some narrative plots might have been originated in northern Asia - such asthe famous "Thumbling" (Tom Thumb; Figure S1-6-I o), while a last group could have spreadfrom Africa (Figure S1-6-I n), as in the case of ATU670 "The Man Who Understands AnimalLanguage"."
See: Bortolini et al
http://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2016/12/02/091074.full.pdf
"Observable patterns of cultural variation are consistently intertwined with demic movements,cultural diffusion, and adaptation to different ecological contexts (Cavalli-Sforza andFeldman 1981; Boyd and Richerson 1985). The quantitative study of gene-culture co-evolutionhas focused in particular on the mechanisms responsible for change in frequency and attributesof cultural traits, on the spread of cultural information through demic and cultural diffusion,and on detecting relationships between genetic and cultural lineages. Here, for the first time,we make use of worldwide whole-genome sequences (Pagani et al. 2016) to assess the impactof demic diffusion on cultural diversity, focusing on the variability observed in folktale traditions(N=596) (Uther 2004) in Eurasia and Africa. We show that at small geographic scales(<=5000 km) there is a strong correlation between folktale and genomic distance when theeffect of geography is corrected, while geographic distance has no independent effect on thedistribution of folkloric narratives at the same spatial scale. This points to demic processes(i.e. population movement and re- placement) as the main driver of folktale transmission atlimited geographic ranges. The role of population movements becomes more apparent whenregions characterized by episodes of directional expansions, such as the Neolithization of WestEurasia, are examined. Furthermore, we identify 89 individual tales which are likely to be predominantlytransmitted through demic diffusion, and locate putative focal areas for a subsetof them."
"One recent studysuggested that the distributions of a substantial number of fairy tales shared among Indo-Europeanpopulations were more consistent with linguistic relationships than their geographical proximity,suggesting they were inherited from common ancestral populations."
" However, when consideredseparately, AIC ∆s (SI1 Section 3) indicate that genetic distance outperforms geographicdistance, with both Akaike weights and likelihoods confirming that genomic variability has a highergoodness-of-fit than geography alone."
"The most widespread or "popular" folktales which do not show any evidence of demic transmissioncan be grouped into four main focal areas. Some of these tales possibly started to be diffusedmostly via cultural transmission from eastern Europe (such as ATU155, The Ungrateful Snake Returned to Captivity; Figure S1-6-I a), while others are more probably starting their journeyfrom Caucasus (Figure S1-6-I f). Examples of the latter are ATU400 "The Man on a Quest for HisLost Wife", ATU480 "The Kind and Unkind Girls", ATU531 "The Clever Horse", and ATU560"The Magic Ring". Some narrative plots might have been originated in northern Asia - such asthe famous "Thumbling" (Tom Thumb; Figure S1-6-I o), while a last group could have spreadfrom Africa (Figure S1-6-I n), as in the case of ATU670 "The Man Who Understands AnimalLanguage"."
