Abstract
We cannot predict the behavior of a single person using mathematical equations. However, if we consider many individuals, we can observe certain regularities in the overall reproductive and dispersive behavior of human populations. This is not surprising because the same happens with non-human species. Indeed, the latter are routinely studied by many ecologists who describe biological invasions by means of mathematical models. Here we do the same for a specific phenomenon in human prehistory: the Neolithic transition, i.e. the shift from hunting-gathering into farming economics. We review recent models that attempt to estimate to what extent the spread of the Neolithic across Europe from the Near East (which has been well-established by archaeologists and geneticists) was due to demic diffusion (dispersal of farming populations) and/or to cultural diffusion (incorporation of hunter-gatherers into the farming populations).
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Fort, J. (2018). The Neolithic Transition: Diffusion of People or Diffusion of Culture?. In: Bunde, A., Caro, J., Kärger, J., Vogl, G. (eds) Diffusive Spreading in Nature, Technology and Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67798-9_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67798-9_16
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