Foundations of the Age-Area Hypothesis

Abstract A useful tool in understanding the roots of the world geography of culture is the Age-Area-Hypothesis. The Age-Area Hypothesis (AAH) asserts that the point of geographical origin of a group of related cultures is most likely where the culture speaking the most divergent language is located....

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Autor principal:	Matthew J. Baker
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Springer Nature 2021
Materias:	History of scholarship and learning. The humanities AZ20-999 Social Sciences H
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/84c8b016f781421d818db09656799885
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:84c8b016f781421d818db096567998852021-12-05T12:18:51ZFoundations of the Age-Area Hypothesis10.1057/s41599-021-00991-82662-9992https://doaj.org/article/84c8b016f781421d818db096567998852021-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00991-8https://doaj.org/toc/2662-9992Abstract A useful tool in understanding the roots of the world geography of culture is the Age-Area-Hypothesis. The Age-Area Hypothesis (AAH) asserts that the point of geographical origin of a group of related cultures is most likely where the culture speaking the most divergent language is located. In spite of its widespread, multidisciplinary application, the hypothesis remains imprecisely stated, and has no theoretical underpinnings. This paper describes a model of the AAH based on an economic theory of mass migrations. The theory leads to a family of measures of cultural divergence, which can be referred to as Dyen divergence measures. One measure is used to develop an Age-Area Theorem, which links linguistic divergence and likelihood of geographical origin. The theory allows for computation of the likelihood different locations are origin points for a group of related cultures, and can be applied recursively to yield probabilities of different historical migratory paths. The theory yields an Occam’s-razor-like result: migratory paths that are the simplest are also the most likely; a key principle of the AAH. The paper concludes with an application to the geographical origins of the peoples speaking Semitic languages.Matthew J. BakerSpringer NaturearticleHistory of scholarship and learning. The humanitiesAZ20-999Social SciencesHENHumanities & Social Sciences Communications, Vol 8, Iss 1, Pp 1-17 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	History of scholarship and learning. The humanities AZ20-999 Social Sciences H
spellingShingle	History of scholarship and learning. The humanities AZ20-999 Social Sciences H Matthew J. Baker Foundations of the Age-Area Hypothesis
description	Abstract A useful tool in understanding the roots of the world geography of culture is the Age-Area-Hypothesis. The Age-Area Hypothesis (AAH) asserts that the point of geographical origin of a group of related cultures is most likely where the culture speaking the most divergent language is located. In spite of its widespread, multidisciplinary application, the hypothesis remains imprecisely stated, and has no theoretical underpinnings. This paper describes a model of the AAH based on an economic theory of mass migrations. The theory leads to a family of measures of cultural divergence, which can be referred to as Dyen divergence measures. One measure is used to develop an Age-Area Theorem, which links linguistic divergence and likelihood of geographical origin. The theory allows for computation of the likelihood different locations are origin points for a group of related cultures, and can be applied recursively to yield probabilities of different historical migratory paths. The theory yields an Occam’s-razor-like result: migratory paths that are the simplest are also the most likely; a key principle of the AAH. The paper concludes with an application to the geographical origins of the peoples speaking Semitic languages.
format	article
author	Matthew J. Baker
author_facet	Matthew J. Baker
author_sort	Matthew J. Baker
title	Foundations of the Age-Area Hypothesis
title_short	Foundations of the Age-Area Hypothesis
title_full	Foundations of the Age-Area Hypothesis
title_fullStr	Foundations of the Age-Area Hypothesis
title_full_unstemmed	Foundations of the Age-Area Hypothesis
title_sort	foundations of the age-area hypothesis
publisher	Springer Nature
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/84c8b016f781421d818db09656799885
work_keys_str_mv	AT matthewjbaker foundationsoftheageareahypothesis
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Foundations of the Age-Area Hypothesis

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