Language, ecological diversity in Calif. linked
By Melissa Pandika, Los Angeles Times
Anthropologists have puzzled for decades over why a complex patchwork of languages emerged in California thousands of years ago, but not in other parts of North America. New research now traces California’s linguistic diversity to its ecological diversity.
A study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the migrating tribes first settled along the state’s lush Pacific coast, then moved into progressively drier habitats farther inland, resulting in an array of language groups living alongside one another. Prehistoric California was home to speakers of about 64 distinct languages, according to the California Department of Parks and Recreation.
Earlier studies have shown an association between ecological and linguistic diversity, but anthropologists Brian Codding from the University of Utah and Terry Jones from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo wanted to understand how this diversity developed over time.
To that end, they tested a model of how people colonize landscapes, which behavioral ecologists first proposed around the 1970s. The model predicts that the greenest habitats will be settled first and have the densest populations, because of their ability to support more people. Later waves of migrants will settle in less suitable areas.
Hasn’t changed too much. We primitives in the interior (for the most part) speak an entirely different language from those in the urban coastal zones. Trouble is, those urbans keep sending their ‘missionaries’ to convert us to their urban belief systems and languages. . .
Our tax dollars are being spent for this scientific nonsense. These people need a real job.
Let’s see. Do I want to live where there is little water and greenery or where the pickens are easy?
Maybe I need to do an expensive research project and publish some claptrap to justify my university existence. Yeh, that is it.
Dogula is talking about Mexicans. Who were actually here first. Our ‘missionaries’ killed them.
The article is talking about people who existed before she believes the earth existed.
Umm, no, Fish, that wasn’t what I was talking about at all. Making assumptions again. . .
I meant the urban environmental missionaries who come to the rural areas to show farmers and ranchers the errors of their ways. But I guess I forgot to use the sarcasm font.