Neolithic and mesolithic communities

----- Original Message -----

From: Piotr Gąsiorowski

To: astolbov@...

Sent: Sunday, September 19, 1999 11:57 AM

Subject: Caraculiambro

 

As regards relations between Neolithic and pre-Neolithic communities, indeed, there are numerous contrary examples [showing that the extinction of mesolithic tribes in contact situations is not inevitable]. Let me quote Lyle Campbell (1999, from Nostratic... ed. by Renfrew & Nettle) in extenso:

For example, there is no evidence in Mesoamerica, highland South America, eastern North America, or the American Southwest for agriculturalists dispersing and replacing other languages along with the spread of agriculture. One could

argue just the opposite: the inception of agriculture seems to provide the stability for some groups in some areas to settle in and to undergo more internal linguistic differentiation locally than was possible before agriculture. There is evidence in a number of cases of non-agriculturalists acquiring agriculture from their neighbours while maintaining their linguistic (and ethnic) identity, as for example is documented by both linguistic and archaeological evidence in the case of the Apachean speakers in the American Southwest and Xincan speakers in Guatemala [..] to mention just a couple. [..] For example, in the small, marginal Xincan family of four languages in southeastern Guatemala, virtually all terms for agriculture and cultigens are borrowed from neighbouring Mayan and Mixe-Zoquean families languages, showing that Xincan speakers acquired agriculture from their neighbours, yet Xincan territory and languages survived intact until modern times. [..] The fact that the areas of the world with the oldest and most intensive agriculture typically have the greatest linguistic diversity (Mesoamerica, southeast Asia, central Africa, and Mesopotamia) show [sic!--PG] clearly that there can be no expectation of agriculture expansion correlating closely with linguistic expansion which takes over other languages. Ethnic and linguistic maintenance and shift are clearly influenced by many factors, but the gross acquisition of agriculture does not necessarily play a deterministic role.

I'm equally sceptical of Renfrew's model, which has a sound nucleus but is too dogmanic in many respects. Cultural, ethnic or linguistic evolution is not reducible to ironclad axioms. By the way, now I'm inclined to believe that the Starcevo complex in the West Pontic region already involved IE speakers, and that the movement up the Danube was after all a largish migration rather than gradual expansion. The disastrous flooding of the coastal areas about 5600 BC, when the Mediterranean flowed into the Black Sea depression, must have sent many peoples looking for new homes and opportunities. Significantly, it is becoming clear that the North European Plains went Neolithic more less simultaneously in the latter half of the sixth millennium everywhere from the Rhine to modern Poland.

 

Best regards,

Piotr