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<div style="direction: ltr;font-family: Tahoma;color: #000000;font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Well, if you take out all sorts of things like mountains, oceans, and other obstacles to
population movement, <br>
the differences between ecological zones generally makes it easier to move laterally than vertically. There
<br>
is clear evidence in the English invasion-settlement of North America, settlers tended to move westward
<br>
into ecologically compatible zones -- you can't plant cotton in North Dakota, nor grow wheat very successfully
<br>
in Alabama. But the Romans moved from lower Italy to northern Britain, the Egyptians consolidated the
<br>
length of the Nile, and then went north as far as Syria (but not east or west), the Austronesians (depending
<br>
on whose story you accept), may have spread from Taiwan all the way south to Indonesia before turning
<br>
eastward, and the Uto-Aztecans spread in one direction as far south as Guatemala and as far north as Utah.
<br>
But Algonkians covered the whole breadth of Canada and even into northern California, as well as down
<br>
the east coast to Virginia. Simplistic ideas of taking a political boundary (usually a late one) and using that
<br>
as a boundary for measuring diversity, are just that -- ignorantly simplistic, no matter how sophisticated the
<br>
mathematic mumbo-jumbo is. <br>
<br>
Rudy Troike<br>
University of Arizona<br>
</span></font><br>
ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU</font>
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<div style="direction: ltr;" id="divRpF712709"><font color="#000000" face="Tahoma" size="2"><b>From:</b> Rolland Nadjiwon [mikinakn@SHAW.CA]<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, June 12, 2012 2:24 PM<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: How geography shapes cultural diversity (fwd link)<br>
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<div dir="ltr" align="left"><span class="499091921-12062012">So...do you have an opinion on this and if so, I would appreciate reading it....or anyone else...particularly indigenous people on the list....probably worded wrong but not meant to be exclusive or
chauvinistic(not a gender statement)...</span></div>
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<div align="left">wahjeh</div>
<div align="left">rolland nadjiwon</div>
<div align="left">_____________________________________</div>
<font face="Tahoma" size="2">
<div align="left"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="color:#333333"> <font color="#000000"> “in the cabaret of globalization, the state appears as a stripper —
</font></span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="color:#333333"><font color="#000000">it strips off all its characteristics until only the bare essential remains: repressive force.” SubCommander Marcos...</font></span></font></div>
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<font face="Tahoma" size="2"><b>From:</b> Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Phillip E Cash Cash<br>
<b>Sent:</b> June-12-12 1:53 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [ILAT] How geography shapes cultural diversity (fwd link)<br>
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<font size="-0"><font face="georgia,serif">How geography shapes cultural diversity<br>
<br>
Study offers evidence that long countries give better protection to languages than those that are wide.<br>
<br>
Zoë Corbyn<br>
11 June 2012<br>
<br>
One reason that Eurasian civilizations dominated the globe is because they came from a continent that was broader in an east–west direction than north–south, claimed geographer Jared Diamond in his famous 1997 book Guns, Germs and Steel. Now, a modelling study
has found evidence to support this 'continental axis theory'.<br>
<br>
Continents that span narrower bands of latitude have less variation in climate, which means a set of plants and animals that are adapted to more similar conditions. That is an advantage, says Diamond, because it means that agricultural innovations are able
to diffuse more easily, with culture and ideas following suit. As a result, Diamond's hypothesis predicts, along lines of latitude there will be more cultural homogeneity than along lines of longitude.<br>
<br>
To test that prediction, researchers at Stanford University in California used language persistence as a proxy for cultural diversity, and analysed the percentage of historically indigenous languages that remain in use in 147 countries today relative to their
shape. For example, the team looked at the difference between Chile, which has a long north–south axis, and Turkey, which has a wider axis running east to west.<br>
<br>
Access full article below:<br>
<a href="http://www.nature.com/news/how-geography-shapes-cultural-diversity-1.10808" target="_blank">http://www.nature.com/news/how-geography-shapes-cultural-diversity-1.10808</a><br>
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