Periodic Reporting for period 3 - SAPPHIRE (South American population history revisited: multidisciplinary perspectives on the Upper Amazon)
Reporting period: 2022-08-01 to 2024-01-31
The central challenge faced by linguistics is to understand linguistic diversity. Despite influential programmatic studies and sustained interest, many aspects of the evolution of linguistic diversity remain elusive. Yet, the potential value of understanding linguistic diversity is enormous. It could help us uncover specific past events such as migration and historical contact between societies, perhaps even in very deep time and, more generally, it can give us insight into the interaction between ecology and human behaviour and human cognition.
This project addresses these challenges by focussing on the Upper Amazon in western South America, an area which forms a unique microcosm of diversity in which several sociohistorical layers of the continental population history are represented. The north and south are extremely diverse, and possibly represent very old diversity patterns. Both areas also show clear signs of regional, and possibly deep-time language contact. The central part is dominated by three language families, Panoan, Arawakan, and, more towards and in the highlands, Quechuan. The Arawakan and Panoan groups probably arrived during relatively recent expansions into the Upper Amazon. This microcosm of diversity forms an unparalleled natural laboratory for understanding more about sociological dynamics and the evolution of linguistic diversity.
The project takes an innovative multi-disciplinary approach to unearthing the socio-historical dynamics that have led to these various diversity patterns. In order to do so, geographical, socio-historical, and communicative layers of history are reconstructed and systematically compared, achieving a level of synergy between the disciplines hitherto unseen. Interpreting the (mis)matches between these layers allows for a more informed reconstruction of past events (e.g. migrations, language shift, exogamy, trade), and sheds light on how these social dynamics shaped linguistic diversity, in turn unlocking the potential of linguistic diversity as a unique window on our past.
Results will provide insight into the development of linguistic diversity, and into the regional history of the Upper Amazon, most of which is only accessible to us through reconstruction.
This project addresses these challenges by focussing on the Upper Amazon in western South America, an area which forms a unique microcosm of diversity in which several sociohistorical layers of the continental population history are represented. The north and south are extremely diverse, and possibly represent very old diversity patterns. Both areas also show clear signs of regional, and possibly deep-time language contact. The central part is dominated by three language families, Panoan, Arawakan, and, more towards and in the highlands, Quechuan. The Arawakan and Panoan groups probably arrived during relatively recent expansions into the Upper Amazon. This microcosm of diversity forms an unparalleled natural laboratory for understanding more about sociological dynamics and the evolution of linguistic diversity.
The project takes an innovative multi-disciplinary approach to unearthing the socio-historical dynamics that have led to these various diversity patterns. In order to do so, geographical, socio-historical, and communicative layers of history are reconstructed and systematically compared, achieving a level of synergy between the disciplines hitherto unseen. Interpreting the (mis)matches between these layers allows for a more informed reconstruction of past events (e.g. migrations, language shift, exogamy, trade), and sheds light on how these social dynamics shaped linguistic diversity, in turn unlocking the potential of linguistic diversity as a unique window on our past.
Results will provide insight into the development of linguistic diversity, and into the regional history of the Upper Amazon, most of which is only accessible to us through reconstruction.
The work within the project so far has mainly focused on the following three themes:
1. Infrastructure for quantitative analyses and data collection
Whereas the databases for genetics and biogeography follow established designs, the database designs for anthropological and linguistic data were developed specifically for the project. They are based on low-level, fine-grained variables, which in turn are grouped into higher-level classifications. This design allows us to assess signals in the data at different levels of granularity. In order to streamline the workflow, the project has developed an R package called Glottospace (https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=glottospace(opens in new window)). In collaboration with the University of Zurich, we are furthermore developing spatial representations of language locations in a consensus map based on previously published maps, which we have digitized, georeferenced and annotated.
2. Approach and method development
This part of the project has focused on the development of a framework for combining signals from different disciplines to reconstruct population history, in particular historical contact scenarios. This framework relies heavily on new and established quantitative methods, but firmly embeds the signals that result from the quantitative analysis in the existing ethnohistorical literature. An important methodological tool involves distance measuring, which allows for direct comparisons between the disciplines, and the establishment of (mis)matches. This part of the approach has also been included in the aforementioned Glottospace package.
3. Regional studies
Using the infrastructure and methodology mentioned above, we have initiated a number of regional and thematic studies, which are in different stages of development. These studies focus in different ways on uncovering patterns that are suggestive of past contact scenarios in the Upper Amazon and between Upper Amazonian and their Andean and Amazonian neighbours. We are also working on publications with continental scope, which can provide a broader background for the research questions pursued in the SAPPHIRE project.
1. Infrastructure for quantitative analyses and data collection
Whereas the databases for genetics and biogeography follow established designs, the database designs for anthropological and linguistic data were developed specifically for the project. They are based on low-level, fine-grained variables, which in turn are grouped into higher-level classifications. This design allows us to assess signals in the data at different levels of granularity. In order to streamline the workflow, the project has developed an R package called Glottospace (https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=glottospace(opens in new window)). In collaboration with the University of Zurich, we are furthermore developing spatial representations of language locations in a consensus map based on previously published maps, which we have digitized, georeferenced and annotated.
2. Approach and method development
This part of the project has focused on the development of a framework for combining signals from different disciplines to reconstruct population history, in particular historical contact scenarios. This framework relies heavily on new and established quantitative methods, but firmly embeds the signals that result from the quantitative analysis in the existing ethnohistorical literature. An important methodological tool involves distance measuring, which allows for direct comparisons between the disciplines, and the establishment of (mis)matches. This part of the approach has also been included in the aforementioned Glottospace package.
3. Regional studies
Using the infrastructure and methodology mentioned above, we have initiated a number of regional and thematic studies, which are in different stages of development. These studies focus in different ways on uncovering patterns that are suggestive of past contact scenarios in the Upper Amazon and between Upper Amazonian and their Andean and Amazonian neighbours. We are also working on publications with continental scope, which can provide a broader background for the research questions pursued in the SAPPHIRE project.
Results so far mostly corroborate proposals that suggest that language contact has played an important role in shaping the high diversity in the Upper Amazon. There are clear historical connections between the Upper Amazon and the Andean highlands, as well as into the lowlands. Evidence of contact is found in the linguistic (grammatical), cultural anthropological, and genetic record. This goes against the idea that the present genealogical diversity is the result of independent development of groups, and consistent with the idea of contact-induced diversification, driven by identity preservation and marking the difference with other, surrounding groups.
Nevertheless, there are also some signals that present tentative evidence against the identity-preservation hypothesis. One is the potential case of language shift of present-day speakers of Tanimuka (southern Colombia). Language shifts are assumed to have been rare in pre-Contact Amazonia. Moreover, a shift from Arawak to Tukanoan is unexpected given the dynamics in the area, which usually present Arawak as the more dominant language family. Language shift also seems to be responsible for the patterns found in the lexicon of Ecuadorian Cañar Quechua (which is more in line with previous claims). Second, an in-depth look at Yanesha’ (central Peru) reveals higher than expected levels of lexical borrowing, not only from Quechuan languages, but also from Panoan and Campan Arawakan languages. This is unexpected in light of the claim that lexical borrowings are uncommon in Amazonia. In the second half of the project, we will further pursue this line of inquiry.
The aim is furthermore to increase our understanding of the seemingly recent expansions of Panoan and Arawakan groups in South and Central Peru. To what extent have they replaced groups that lived there prior to their arrival, what can we say about the timing and direction of the expansions, and to what extent was there contact between in particular Arawakan and Panoan groups?
In the southernmost part of the Upper Amazon, we intend to focus on connections between the Arawakan groups of the Llanos de Mojos, and the surrounding groups. We will try to say more about the degree of interconnectedness between those groups and the formation or maintenance of the present dazzling diversity.
Nevertheless, there are also some signals that present tentative evidence against the identity-preservation hypothesis. One is the potential case of language shift of present-day speakers of Tanimuka (southern Colombia). Language shifts are assumed to have been rare in pre-Contact Amazonia. Moreover, a shift from Arawak to Tukanoan is unexpected given the dynamics in the area, which usually present Arawak as the more dominant language family. Language shift also seems to be responsible for the patterns found in the lexicon of Ecuadorian Cañar Quechua (which is more in line with previous claims). Second, an in-depth look at Yanesha’ (central Peru) reveals higher than expected levels of lexical borrowing, not only from Quechuan languages, but also from Panoan and Campan Arawakan languages. This is unexpected in light of the claim that lexical borrowings are uncommon in Amazonia. In the second half of the project, we will further pursue this line of inquiry.
The aim is furthermore to increase our understanding of the seemingly recent expansions of Panoan and Arawakan groups in South and Central Peru. To what extent have they replaced groups that lived there prior to their arrival, what can we say about the timing and direction of the expansions, and to what extent was there contact between in particular Arawakan and Panoan groups?
In the southernmost part of the Upper Amazon, we intend to focus on connections between the Arawakan groups of the Llanos de Mojos, and the surrounding groups. We will try to say more about the degree of interconnectedness between those groups and the formation or maintenance of the present dazzling diversity.