Deep history of cultural and linguistic evolution among Central African hunter-gatherers

Padilla-Iglesias, Cecilia; Blanco-Portillo, Javier; Pricop, Bogdan; Ioannidis, Alexander G; Bickel, Balthasar; Manica, Andrea; Vinicius, Lucio; Migliano, Andrea Bamberg

doi:10.5167/uzh-260745

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Padilla-Iglesias, C., Blanco-Portillo, J., Pricop, B., Ioannidis, A. G., Bickel, B., Manica, A., Vinicius, L., & Migliano, A. B. (2024). Deep history of cultural and linguistic evolution among Central African hunter-gatherers. Nature Human Behaviour, online. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01891-y

Abstract

Human evolutionary history in Central Africa reflects a deep history of population connectivity. However, Central African hunter-gatherers (CAHGs) currently speak languages acquired from their neighbouring farmers. Hence it remains unclear which aspects of CAHG cultural diversity results from long-term evolution preceding agriculture and which reflect borrowing from farmers. On the basis of musical instruments, foraging tools, specialized vocabulary and genome-wide data from ten CAHG populations, we reveal evidence of large-scale cult