Exploring the South America Human Dispersal Distinctiveness

LANATA, JOSÉ LUIS; GARCÍA-HERBST, ARLEEN; MARTINO, LUIS; OSELLA, ANA

The Prehistory of South-America

Univ. of Alabama Press

Lugar: Alabama-USA; Año: 2006;

Human beings are fragmented through space. The way in which dispersal connects them is correlated to their evolutionary trajectory. The spatial structuring of a population affects its local and global adaptation, as well as its rate of genetic drift, among other different evolutionary processes. Taking into consideration the structure of the ecoregions in which human dispersal took place, without a doubt makes our understanding of this process difficult, but more interesting?for details about the evolution of dispersal see Gandon et al. 2001. In this chapter, first we explore the principal characteristics of human dispersal in South America, from a framework that takes into account the principles of dispersal (Clobert et al. 2001) and metapopulation (Hanski and Gilpin 1997) studies. Then, we develop a dispersal simulation model to demonstrate its distinctiveness. Finally, we briefly discuss its consequences on cultural trajectories.