The Impact of the Prehistoric Out-of-Africa Migration on Cultural Diversity

Arbeitspapier

Evidence suggests that the prehistoric Out of Africa Migration has impacted the degree of intra-population genetic and phenotypic diversity across the globe. This paper provides the first evidence that this migration has shaped cultural diversity. Leveraging a folklore catalogue of 958 oral traditions across the world, we find that ethnic groups further away from East Africa along the migratory routes have lower folkloric diversity. This pattern is consistent with the compression of genetic, phenotypic, and phonemic traits along the Out of Africa migration routes, setting conditions for the emergence and proliferation of differential cultural diversity and economic development across the world.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 10379

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economic Development: General ; Cultural Economics; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology: General
• Subject: diversity ; culture ; Out of Africa ; folklore

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Galor, Oded ; Klemp, Marc ; Wainstock, Daniel C.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2023

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/272023
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET