期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2015
卷号：112
期号：43
页码：13296-13301
DOI：10.1073/pnas.1503793112
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：SignificanceHumans are uniquely capable of using cultural innovations to occupy a range of environments, raising the intriguing question of whether historical human migrations have followed familiar habitats or moved relatively independently of them. Beginning [~]5,000 y ago, savannah-dwelling populations of Bantu-speaking peoples swept out of West Central Africa, eventually occupying a vast geographical area. We show that this expansion avoided unfamiliar rainforest habitats by following savannah corridors that emerged from the Congo rainforest, probably from climate change. When Bantu speakers did move into the rainforest, migration rates were delayed by on average 300 y compared with similar movements on the savannah. Despite unmatched abilities to produce innovations culturally, unfamiliar habitats significantly alter the route and pace of human dispersals. Unlike most other biological species, humans can use cultural innovations to occupy a range of environments, raising the intriguing question of whether human migrations move relatively independently of habitat or show preferences for familiar ones. The Bantu expansion that swept out of West Central Africa beginning [~]5,000 y ago is one of the most influential cultural events of its kind, eventually spreading over a vast geographical area a new way of life in which farming played an increasingly important role. We use a new dated phylogeny of [~]400 Bantu languages to show that migrating Bantu-speaking populations did not expand from their ancestral homeland in a "random walk" but, rather, followed emerging savannah corridors, with rainforest habitats repeatedly imposing temporal barriers to movement. When populations did move from savannah into rainforest, rates of migration were slowed, delaying the occupation of the rainforest by on average 300 y, compared with similar migratory movements exclusively within savannah or within rainforest by established rainforest populations. Despite unmatched abilities to produce innovations culturally, unfamiliar habitats significantly alter the route and pace of human dispersals.
关键词：human dispersal ; phylogeography ; phylogenetics ; languages ; Bantu
