Role of demographic dynamics and conflict in the population-area relationship for human languages.

Many patterns displayed by the distribution of human linguistic groups are similar to the ecological organization described for biological species. It remains a challenge to identify simple and meaningful processes that describe these patterns. The population size distribution of human linguistic gr...

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Autores principales:	Susanna C Manrubia, Jacob B Axelsen, Damián H Zanette
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2012
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/a7ef2e99d850494e96e2f3d6e680dc5f
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:a7ef2e99d850494e96e2f3d6e680dc5f2021-11-18T07:12:05ZRole of demographic dynamics and conflict in the population-area relationship for human languages.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0040137https://doaj.org/article/a7ef2e99d850494e96e2f3d6e680dc5f2012-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/22815726/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Many patterns displayed by the distribution of human linguistic groups are similar to the ecological organization described for biological species. It remains a challenge to identify simple and meaningful processes that describe these patterns. The population size distribution of human linguistic groups, for example, is well fitted by a log-normal distribution that may arise from stochastic demographic processes. As we show in this contribution, the distribution of the area size of home ranges of those groups also agrees with a log-normal function. Further, size and area are significantly correlated: the number of speakers p and the area a spanned by linguistic groups follow the allometric relation a proportional to p2, with an exponent z varying accross different world regions. The empirical evidence presented leads to the hypothesis that the distributions of p and a, and their mutual dependence, rely on demographic dynamics and on the result of conflicts over territory due to group growth. To substantiate this point, we introduce a two-variable stochastic multiplicative model whose analytical solution recovers the empirical observations. Applied to different world regions, the model reveals that the retreat in home range is sublinear with respect to the decrease in population size, and that the population-area exponent z grows with the typical strength of conflicts. While the shape of the population size and area distributions, and their allometric relation, seem unavoidable outcomes of demography and inter-group contact, the precise value of z could give insight on the cultural organization of those human groups in the last thousand years.Susanna C ManrubiaJacob B AxelsenDamián H ZanettePublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 7, Iss 7, p e40137 (2012)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Susanna C Manrubia Jacob B Axelsen Damián H Zanette Role of demographic dynamics and conflict in the population-area relationship for human languages.
description	Many patterns displayed by the distribution of human linguistic groups are similar to the ecological organization described for biological species. It remains a challenge to identify simple and meaningful processes that describe these patterns. The population size distribution of human linguistic groups, for example, is well fitted by a log-normal distribution that may arise from stochastic demographic processes. As we show in this contribution, the distribution of the area size of home ranges of those groups also agrees with a log-normal function. Further, size and area are significantly correlated: the number of speakers p and the area a spanned by linguistic groups follow the allometric relation a proportional to p2, with an exponent z varying accross different world regions. The empirical evidence presented leads to the hypothesis that the distributions of p and a, and their mutual dependence, rely on demographic dynamics and on the result of conflicts over territory due to group growth. To substantiate this point, we introduce a two-variable stochastic multiplicative model whose analytical solution recovers the empirical observations. Applied to different world regions, the model reveals that the retreat in home range is sublinear with respect to the decrease in population size, and that the population-area exponent z grows with the typical strength of conflicts. While the shape of the population size and area distributions, and their allometric relation, seem unavoidable outcomes of demography and inter-group contact, the precise value of z could give insight on the cultural organization of those human groups in the last thousand years.
format	article
author	Susanna C Manrubia Jacob B Axelsen Damián H Zanette
author_facet	Susanna C Manrubia Jacob B Axelsen Damián H Zanette
author_sort	Susanna C Manrubia
title	Role of demographic dynamics and conflict in the population-area relationship for human languages.
title_short	Role of demographic dynamics and conflict in the population-area relationship for human languages.
title_full	Role of demographic dynamics and conflict in the population-area relationship for human languages.
title_fullStr	Role of demographic dynamics and conflict in the population-area relationship for human languages.
title_full_unstemmed	Role of demographic dynamics and conflict in the population-area relationship for human languages.
title_sort	role of demographic dynamics and conflict in the population-area relationship for human languages.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2012
url	https://doaj.org/article/a7ef2e99d850494e96e2f3d6e680dc5f
work_keys_str_mv	AT susannacmanrubia roleofdemographicdynamicsandconflictinthepopulationarearelationshipforhumanlanguages AT jacobbaxelsen roleofdemographicdynamicsandconflictinthepopulationarearelationshipforhumanlanguages AT damianhzanette roleofdemographicdynamicsandconflictinthepopulationarearelationshipforhumanlanguages
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Role of demographic dynamics and conflict in the population-area relationship for human languages.

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