Northwest Amazon; language isolates; social history; Diversity maintenance; Language isolate; Population genetics; Social life; Biotechnology; Biophysics; Bioengineering; Biochemistry; Biomaterials; Biomedical Engineering
Abstract :
[en] 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.
Disciplines :
Languages & linguistics
Author, co-author :
Van Gijn, Rik ; Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands
Norder, Sietze ; 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
Arias, Leonardo ; Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands ; Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany
Emlen, Nicholas Q ; Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands ; University of Groningen, Campus Fryslân 8911 CE, The Netherlands
Azevedo, Matheus C B C; Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands
Caine, Allison ; Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands ; Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, 82071, Laramie, WY, USA
Dunn, Saskia; Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands
Howard, Austin ; Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands
Julmi, Nora; Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands
Krasnoukhova, Olga ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de langues modernes : linguistique, littérature et traduction > Linguistique synchronique anglaise ; Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands
Stoneking, Mark; 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
Wiegertjes, Jurriaan; Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, The Netherlands
Language :
English
Title :
The social lives of isolates (and small language families): the case of the Northwest Amazon.
EU - European Union ERC - European Research Council MPG - Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften
Funding text :
This study was funded by European Union (grant no. 818854), European Research Council (ERC), the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant no. 895548 and Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Acknowledgements
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