ARCHAEOLOGY: Spreading the Word, Scattering the Seeds (p. 988)
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Ben Shouse
According to the "farming-language dispersal hypothesis," throngs of
farmers, armed with seeds, genes, and language, swept across the land
beginning 100 centuries ago, pushing aside indigenous hunter-
gatherers. But
many scholars were suspicious of the grand aspirations of the farming-
language hypothesis and of its archaeologist proponents, who they say
tend
to ignore unfavorable linguistic data. Now at a recent conference
here, new
studies presented from India and Southeast Asia further threatened the
hypothesis, weakening the case for cereal crops as engines of
linguistic
dispersal.
Full story at
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/294/5544/988