Continents influenced human migration, spread of technology

Brown University ^ | September 19, 2011 | Unknown

[decimon]

Researchers at Brown University and Stanford University have pieced together ancient human migration in North and South America. Writing in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the authors find that technology spread more slowly in the Americas than in Eurasia. Population groups in the Americas have less frequent exchanges than groups that fanned out over Europe and Asia.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — How modern-day humans dispersed on the planet and the pace of civilization-changing technologies that accompanied their migrations are enduring mysteries. Scholars believe ancient peoples on Europe and Asia moved primarily along east-west routes, taking advantage of the relative sameness in climate, allowing technological advances to spread quickly. But what about in North and South America, with its long, north-south orientation and great variability in climate? How did people move and how quickly did societal innovations follow?

Using advanced genetic analysis techniques, evolutionary biologists at Brown University and Stanford University studied nearly 700 locations on human genomes drawn from more than five dozen populations. They say that technology spread more slowly in the Americas than in Eurasia and that the continents’ orientation seems to explain the difference. After humans arrived in the Americas 20,000 to 40,000 years ago, genetic data shows, the migrating populations didn’t interact as frequently as groups in Eurasia.

[decimon]

Twain peoples ping.

[tbw2]

This topic was discussed extensively in “Guns, Germs, and Steel”.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks decimon. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Alas Babylon!]

Yes it was. In fact, you can also watch the 2-part documentary “Guns, Germs and Steel” on Netflix. My son and I watched it over the week end.

[SatinDoll]

Yah! You beat me to it.