TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Galor, Oded
AU  - Özak, Ömer
AU  - Sarid, Assaf
        TI  - Geographical Roots of the Coevolution of Cultural and Linguistic Traits
        PY  - 2018/Nov/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 11982
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp11982
        AB  - This research explores the geographical origins of the coevolution of cultural and linguistic traits in the course of human history, relating the geographical roots of long-term orientation to the structure of the future tense, the agricultural determinants of gender bias to the presence of sex-based grammatical gender, and the ecological origins of hierarchical orientation to the existence of politeness distinctions. The study advances the hypothesis and establishes empirically that: (i) geographical characteristics that were conducive to higher natural return to agricultural investment contributed to the existing cross-language variations in the structure of the future tense, (ii) the agricultural determinants of gender gap in agricultural productivity fostered the existence of sex-based grammatical gender, and (iii) the ecological origins of hierarchical societies triggered the emergence of politeness distinctions.
        KW  - comparative development
KW  - cultural evolution
KW  - language structures
KW  - future tense
KW  - politeness distinctions
KW  - long-term orientation
KW  - grammatical gender
KW  - gender bias
KW  - hierarchy
KW  - emergence of states
        ER  -