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4 - Systemic Expansion

from Pleistocene Evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2020

Patrick Manning
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
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Summary

Expansion of the Human System began with divergence and migration of speaking communities in their homeland. Then, up to 45,000 years ago, migrants moved southwest across Africa and eastward along the Indian Ocean littoral, as documented through archaeology, genomics, and climate. Language evidence, supplemented by an accompanying website, confirms the value of Joseph H. Greenberg’s tradition of large-scale linguistic analysis. African migration included multiple settlements among preexisting hominin populations. The parallel migration into Asia, now identified genetically as a single migration, relied on watercraft at most stages. Surviving language groups indicate the path of migrants along the Indian Ocean littoral. Only after 45,000 years ago were migrants able to move northward, into the ecologically distinctive temperate zone. Once in the steppes, migrants moved east to Northeast Asia and west to the Black Sea. As networks facilitated exchange of dogs, religious ideas, bows and arrows, the Human System thus expanded from its initial locality to become a hemispheric network of communities in contact.

Type
Chapter
Information
A History of Humanity
The Evolution of the Human System
, pp. 62 - 83
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Systemic Expansion
  • Patrick Manning, University of Pittsburgh
  • Book: A History of Humanity
  • Online publication: 14 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108784528.005
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  • Systemic Expansion
  • Patrick Manning, University of Pittsburgh
  • Book: A History of Humanity
  • Online publication: 14 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108784528.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Systemic Expansion
  • Patrick Manning, University of Pittsburgh
  • Book: A History of Humanity
  • Online publication: 14 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108784528.005
Available formats
×