Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals
(2015)
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
112(43).
p.13296-13301
- Author
- Rebecca Grollemund, Simon Branford, Koen Bostoen (UGent) , Andrew Meade, Chris Venditti and Mark Pagel
- Organization
- Project
-
- KONGOKING (Political centralization, economic integration and language evolution in Central Africa: An interdisciplinary approach to the early history of the Kongo kingdom)
- Abstract
- Unlike most other biological species, humans can use cultural innovations to occupy a range of environments, raising the intriguing question of whether human migrations move relatively independently of habitat or show preferences for familiar ones. The Bantu expansion that swept out of West Central Africa beginning ∼5,000 y ago is one of the most influential cultural events of its kind, eventually spreading over a vast geographical area a new way of life in which farming played an increasingly important role. We use a new dated phylogeny of ∼400 Bantu languages to show that migrating Bantu-speaking populations did not expand from their ancestral homeland in a “random walk” but, rather, followed emerging savannah corridors, with rainforest habitats repeatedly imposing temporal barriers to movement. When populations did move from savannah into rainforest, rates of migration were slowed, delaying the occupation of the rainforest by on average 300 y, compared with similar migratory movements exclusively within savannah or within rainforest by established rainforest populations. Despite unmatched abilities to produce innovations culturally, unfamiliar habitats significantly alter the route and pace of human dispersals.
- Keywords
- Bantu, AGE CENTRAL-AFRICA, phylogenetics, phylogeography, languages, human dispersal, LAND-USE, VEGETATION CHANGE, CENTRAL CAMEROON, CLIMATIC CHANGES, SOUTHERN CONGO, RAIN-FOREST, LAKE SINNDA, SHUM-LAKA, WESTERN EQUATORIAL AFRICA
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-6930191
- MLA
- Grollemund, Rebecca, et al. “Bantu Expansion Shows That Habitat Alters the Route and Pace of Human Dispersals.” PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, vol. 112, no. 43, 2015, pp. 13296–301, doi:10.1073/pnas.1503793112.
- APA
- Grollemund, R., Branford, S., Bostoen, K., Meade, A., Venditti, C., & Pagel, M. (2015). Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 112(43), 13296–13301. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1503793112
- Chicago author-date
- Grollemund, Rebecca, Simon Branford, Koen Bostoen, Andrew Meade, Chris Venditti, and Mark Pagel. 2015. “Bantu Expansion Shows That Habitat Alters the Route and Pace of Human Dispersals.” PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 112 (43): 13296–301. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1503793112.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Grollemund, Rebecca, Simon Branford, Koen Bostoen, Andrew Meade, Chris Venditti, and Mark Pagel. 2015. “Bantu Expansion Shows That Habitat Alters the Route and Pace of Human Dispersals.” PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 112 (43): 13296–13301. doi:10.1073/pnas.1503793112.
- Vancouver
- 1.Grollemund R, Branford S, Bostoen K, Meade A, Venditti C, Pagel M. Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 2015;112(43):13296–301.
- IEEE
- [1]R. Grollemund, S. Branford, K. Bostoen, A. Meade, C. Venditti, and M. Pagel, “Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals,” PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, vol. 112, no. 43, pp. 13296–13301, 2015.
@article{6930191,
abstract = {{Unlike most other biological species, humans can use cultural innovations to occupy a range of environments, raising the intriguing question of whether human migrations move relatively independently of habitat or show preferences for familiar ones. The Bantu expansion that swept out of West Central Africa beginning ∼5,000 y ago is one of the most influential cultural events of its kind, eventually spreading over a vast geographical area a new way of life in which farming played an increasingly important role. We use a new dated phylogeny of ∼400 Bantu languages to show that migrating Bantu-speaking populations did not expand from their ancestral homeland in a “random walk” but, rather, followed emerging savannah corridors, with rainforest habitats repeatedly imposing temporal barriers to movement. When populations did move from savannah into rainforest, rates of migration were slowed, delaying the occupation of the rainforest by on average 300 y, compared with similar migratory movements exclusively within savannah or within rainforest by established rainforest populations. Despite unmatched abilities to produce innovations culturally, unfamiliar habitats significantly alter the route and pace of human dispersals.}},
author = {{Grollemund, Rebecca and Branford, Simon and Bostoen, Koen and Meade, Andrew and Venditti, Chris and Pagel, Mark}},
issn = {{0027-8424}},
journal = {{PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA}},
keywords = {{Bantu,AGE CENTRAL-AFRICA,phylogenetics,phylogeography,languages,human dispersal,LAND-USE,VEGETATION CHANGE,CENTRAL CAMEROON,CLIMATIC CHANGES,SOUTHERN CONGO,RAIN-FOREST,LAKE SINNDA,SHUM-LAKA,WESTERN EQUATORIAL AFRICA}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{43}},
pages = {{13296--13301}},
title = {{Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1503793112}},
volume = {{112}},
year = {{2015}},
}
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