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Where do successful populations originate from?

Where do successful populations originate from? Thumbnail


Abstract

In order to understand the dynamics of emergence and spreading of socio-technical innovations and population moves it is important to determine the place of origin of these populations. Here we focus on the role of geographical factors, such as land fertility and mountains in the context of human population evolution and distribution dynamics. We use a constrained diffusion-based computational model, computer simulations and the analysis of geographical and land-quality data. Our analysis shows that successful human populations, i.e. those which become dominant in their socio – geographical environment, originate from lands of many valleys with relatively low land fertility, which are close to areas of high land fertility. Many of the homelands predicted by our analysis match the assumed homelands of known successful populations (e.g. Bantus, Turkic, Maya). We also predict other likely homelands as well, where further archaeological, linguistic or genetic exploration may confirm the place of origin for populations with no currently identified urheimat. Our work is significant because it advances the understanding of human population dynamics by guiding the identification of the origin locations of successful populations.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 22, 2021
Publication Date May 1, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of Theoretical Biology
Print ISSN 0022-5193
Publisher Elsevier
Volume 524
Article Number ARTN 110734
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2021.110734
Keywords Computational modelling; Socio-technical evolution; Socio-biological simulation; Human geography; Geography of speciation
Publisher URL https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022519321001569?via%3Dihub#!

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