Demic diffusion
Demographic concept
In demography, demic diffusion, as opposed to trans-cultural diffusion, is a model of human migration developed by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza. It originally includes three phases: (1) population growth, prompted by new available resources as in the case of early farmers, and/or other technological developments; (2) a dispersal into regions with lower population density; (3) a limited initial admixture with the people encountered in the process. It may account for displacing, replacing, or intermixing with an existing population, such as has been suggested for the spread of agriculture across Neolithic Europe and several other Landnahme events.
01Evidence
Theoretical work by Cavalli-Sforza showed that if admixture between expanding farmers and previously resident groups of hunters and gatherers was not immediate, the process would result in the establishment of broad genetic gradients. Because broad gradients, spanning much of Europe from southeast to northwest, were identified in empirical genetic studies by Cavalli-Sforza, Robert R. Sokal, Guido Barbujani, Lounès Chikhi and others, it seemed likely that the spread of agriculture into Europe occurred by the expansion and the spread of agriculturists, who possibly originated in the Fertile Crescent of the Near East. That is referred to as the Neolithic demic diffusion model.
Craniometric and archaeological studies have also arrived at the same conclusion.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Demic diffusion”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Genetic matrilineal distances between European Neolithic Linear Pottery Culture populations (5,500–4,900 calibrated BC) and modern Western Eurasian populations.jpg by Wolfgang Haak , Oleg Balanovsky, Juan J. Sanchez, Sergey Koshel, Valery Zaporozhchenko, Christina J. Adler, Clio S. I. Der Sarkissian, Guido Brandt, Carolin Schwarz, Nicole Nicklisch, Veit Dresely, Barbara Fritsch, Elena Balanovska, [ ... ], the Genographic Consortium, CC BY 2.5
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