What do languages tell us about human microevolution?

Abstract

Analysis of cultural traits, especially from linguistic data, is increasingly being used to interpret gene-frequency variation among human populations. Evolutionary processes are inferred using two major approaches, one based on reconstruction of demographic events in time, and the other based on location of factors of evolutionary relevance in space. This review discusses some assumptions underlying these approaches, and suggests that they may lead to different, although not incompatible, conclusions.