How and by whom the Americas were settled and populated is an interesting
topic. Back in the 1970's, when I worked with the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline
Inquiry, it was believed that the native populations of the Americas migrated
from Asia during the ice age via the Bering Straits land bridge, and that was
that. Since then, a variety of theories have surfaced. They are discussed in
a rather marvelous book called "Bones" by Elaine Dewar. It was published in
2001 is probably already out of date; more theories have undoubtedly arisen.
One theory that I find rather interesting is that of Solutrean migration from
the Iberian Peninsula to the east coast of what is now the east coast of Canada
and during the height of the ice age. That migration, if it happened, would
have occurred some 20,000 years ago.
A migration within the Americas that I found very interesting was that of the
northern Dene, who inhabit much of the Yukon, the western NWT and northern
British Columbia, to the southern US, where they became the Navaho and Apache.
That happened about a thousand years ago.
Back in the late 1970s, Dene with whom I worked had a Navaho teacher come to
Yellowknife to talk to them about the Navaho education system. At one point,
the teacher referred to a "neep" as a horse. "What!" shouted a member of the
audience, "a neep is a dog not a horse". After some argument, it was agreed
that both horses and dogs were beasts of burden so it was OK to call them both
"neep". There was some further discussion of the varied meanings of words and,
in general, what the word meant depended on whether you lived in the north or
the south.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
From: Keith Hudson
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, ,EDUCATION ; Harry Pollard
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 6:23 AM
Subject: [Futurework] The Darwin Economy
Apropos the recent discussion about human adaptability between Harry and me,
the following piece will be of interest. (Be it noted, however, that the
Science Daily writer confuses his latitudes with his longitudes in the 6th
paragraph, though he was correct in his fifth para.)
Keith
Did the Orientation of the Continents Hinder Ancient Settlement of the
Americas?
ScienceDaily (Sep. 21, 2011) - In an intriguing original look at the history
of the first Americans, a new study finds evidence that the north-south
orientation of the American continents slowed the spread of populations and
technology, compared to the east-west axis of Eurasia.
The research, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, is
part of a special section which explores who the first Americans were and how
they were able to settle in the last great unexplored habitat.
The research, by Sohini Ramachandran and Noah Rosenberg, from Brown
University and Stanford University respectively, uses genetic information to
explore the effects of continental axes and climates on human migration and
adaptation across the Americas.
"It has been proposed that the east-west orientation of the Eurasian landmass
aided the rapid spread of ancient technological innovations, while the
north-south orientation of the Americas led to a slower diffusion of technology
there," said Ramachandran. "Our research develops this idea, arguing that
continental orientation influenced migration patterns and played an important
role in determining the structure of human genetic variation and the
distribution and spread of cultural traits."
The research supports the idea that technological diffusion was accelerated
across Eurasia because populations with the same latitude experience similar
climates, making adaptation to new locations easier for domesticated animals,
plants and consequently humans. Alternatively, migrating along lines of
longitude involves adapting to new climates.
"The idea that technology was diffused along latitudinal lines was proposed
by Jared Diamond in 1997, but if this is correct and the spread of technology
was accompanied by human migrations it follows that a comparative study into
genetic variation would reveal a signature of greater genetic differences
between populations along lines of longitude in the Americas than that in
Eurasia along lines of latitude," said Ramachandran.
To test this hypothesis the team analysed genetic variation data from 68
populations, 39 from Eurasia and 29 from Native Americans. The data were used
to identify relationships between the genetic and geographic distances between
populations on each continent.
The results confirmed that the increase in genetic distances along lines of
longitude in the Americas occurs over shorter geographic distances than the
increase in genetic distances in Eurasia along lines of latitude.
"For many years anthropologists have asked who the first Americans were and
how they were able to settle in the last major habitat open to humans," said
Jeff Long, guest editor of the special section. "These six papers use genetics
to answer these questions, not only confirming the genetic signatures of
historic relationships between Native Americans and Eastern Asia, but also
providing evidence for prehistoric migration and adaptation of settlers to the
new world."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily
staff) from materials provided by Wiley-Blackwell, via AlphaGalileo.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Journal Reference:
1.. Sohini Ramachandran, Noah A. Rosenberg. A test of the influence of
continental axes of orientation on patterns of human gene flow. American
Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2011; DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.21533
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2012/08/
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