The social lives of isolates (and small language families): the case of the Northwest Amazon. Issue 1 (9th December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Van Gijn, Rik; Norder, Sietze; Arias, Leonardo; Emlen, Nicholas Q.; Azevedo, Matheus C. B. C.; Caine, Allison; Dunn, Saskia; Howard, Austin; Julmi, Nora; Krasnoukhova, Olga; Stoneking, Mark; Wiegertjes, Jurriaan
• Is Part Of: Interface focus. Volume 13:Issue 1(2023)
• Publication Date: 2022-12-09
• Subjects: social history -- language isolates -- Northwest Amazon; Physical sciences -- Periodicals; Life sciences -- Periodicals; 500
• DOI: 10.1098/rsfs.2022.0054
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2042-8898

Abstract

Abstract : The Americas are home to patches of extraordinary linguistic (genealogical) diversity. These high-diversity areas are particularly unexpected given the recent population of the Americas. In this paper, we zoom in on one such area, the Northwest Amazon, and address the question of how the diversity in this area has persisted to the present. We contrast two hypotheses that claim opposite mechanisms for the maintenance of diversity: the isolation hypothesis suggests that isolation facilitates the preservation of diversity, while the integration hypothesis proposes that conscious identity preservation in combination with contact drives diversity maintenance. We test predictions for both hypotheses across four disciplines: biogeography, cultural anthropology, population genetics and linguistics. Our results show signs of both isolation and integration, but they mainly suggest considerable diversity in how groups of speakers have interacted with their surroundings.