Trying to understand language evolution by looking at genetic variation.
“It makes you wonder if they became isolated from one another for cultural reasons, or if there was some sort of geographical isolation that led to the differentiation,” says Sarah Tishkoff, a human-origins geneticist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Originally shared by +Nature News & Comment
Two studies exploring the genetics of hunter-gatherers and pastoralists in sub-Saharan Africa, where humans are thought to have originated, reveal that even though the click-language peoples of southern Africa live in close proximity, they belong to two distinct genetic clusters.
Geographically close human populations in southern Africa have been genetically isolated for thousands of years.
