Working Paper: NBER ID: w31274
Authors: Oded Galor; Marc Klemp; Daniel C. Wainstock
Abstract: Evidence suggests that the prehistoric Out of Africa Migration has impacted the degree of intra-population genetic and phenotypic diversity across the globe. This paper provides the first evidence that this migration has shaped cultural diversity. Leveraging a folklore catalogue of 958 oral traditions across the world, we find that ethnic groups further away from East Africa along the migratory routes have lower folkloric diversity. This pattern is consistent with the compression of genetic, phenotypic, and phonemic traits along the Out of Africa migration routes, setting conditions for the emergence and proliferation of differential cultural diversity and economic development across the world.
Keywords: Cultural Diversity; Migration; Folklore; Oral Traditions
JEL Codes: N00; O10; O40; Z10
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| migratory distance from East Africa (N97) | folkloric diversity (Z10) |
| migratory distance from East Africa (N97) | folkloric diversity (within continents) (Z10) |
| geographical characteristics, continent-specific fixed effects, ethnographic characteristics (C23) | folkloric diversity (Z10) |
| migratory distance from East Africa (N97) | folkloric diversity (global scale) (Z10) |