Evol Ecol Res 14: 1057-1067 (2012)     Full PDF if your library subscribes.

Latitude, population size, and the language-farming dispersal hypothesis

Drew H. Bailey¹, Marcus J. Hamilton² and Robert S. Walker³

¹Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA,  ²Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA and  ³Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA

Correspondence: D.H. Bailey, Department of Psychology, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. E-mail: drewhalbailey@cmu.edu

ABSTRACT

Question: The language-farming dispersal hypothesis postulates that the current biogeographic distribution of global ethnolinguistic diversity is due to prehistoric demic expansions of agricultural populations. Does human population size increase as diet is increasingly based on agriculture, and is this relation moderated by agricultural potential, as predicted by the language-farming dispersal hypothesis? Do these patterns hold constant within and between language families?

Data: We use a global sample of 805 subsistence-level human societies in 160 language families.

Method: We regress population size on latitude, agricultural dependence, and their interaction. We then analyse variation within and between language families.

Conclusions: Our results provide strong support for the language-farming dispersal hypothesis and suggest that while human population sizes increase rapidly with agriculture, much of this effect is driven by latitudinal variation in agricultural potential. The resulting patterns in the ethnographic and ethnolinguistic records reflect competition for space between populations with different subsistence strategies and varying competitive abilities.

Keywords: agriculture, biogeography, humans, language-farming dispersal hypothesis, population size.

DOWNLOAD A FREE, FULL PDF COPY
IF you are connected using the IP of a subscribing institution (library, laboratory, etc.)
or through its VPN.

 

        © 2012 Drew H. Bailey. All EER articles are copyrighted by their authors. All authors endorse, permit and license Evolutionary Ecology Ltd. to grant its subscribing institutions/libraries the copying privileges specified below without additional consideration or payment to them or to Evolutionary Ecology, Ltd. These endorsements, in writing, are on file in the office of Evolutionary Ecology, Ltd. Consult authors for permission to use any portion of their work in derivative works, compilations or to distribute their work in any commercial manner.

       Subscribing institutions/libraries may grant individuals the privilege of making a single copy of an EER article for non-commercial educational or non-commercial research purposes. Subscribing institutions/libraries may also use articles for non-commercial educational purposes by making any number of copies for course packs or course reserve collections. Subscribing institutions/libraries may also loan single copies of articles to non-commercial libraries for educational purposes.

       All copies of abstracts and articles must preserve their copyright notice without modification.