Connections between Mississippian culture and Mesoamerica?

[PDH]

One thing to remember, the movement of ideas took a long time.  Maize, for instance moves from Mesoamerica to the American Southwest in about 2000 years (or more).  That is plenty of time for a gradual acculturation of ideas and practices.

You don't need invaders or such mobile groups, all you need is time.

[Razgovory]

Yeah, but the proto-Aztecs overpowered a settled agricultural population as a (presumably tiny) nomadic band that was hundreds of miles from it's home.  It seems quite different to me from most of the cases of language replacement I am familiar with.  The Turks were relatively small, but the mobility of the horse meant that a man born in Western Mongolia could pretty easily settle down in the vicinity of modern Ankara, and the steppe's ability to support massive numbers of horses was a huge tactical advantage.  Nahuatl had nothing like that far as I can see.

I'm not sue the proto-Aztecs were tiny nomadic bands.  I think they had agriculture.  Besides, language replacement took place in the Old World without horse.  For instance the Afro-Asiatic speakers seemed to have conquered Sumeria at some point well before horses were common in the area.

[Queequeg]

Yeah, but the proto-Aztecs overpowered a settled agricultural population as a (presumably tiny) nomadic band that was hundreds of miles from it's home.  It seems quite different to me from most of the cases of language replacement I am familiar with.  The Turks were relatively small, but the mobility of the horse meant that a man born in Western Mongolia could pretty easily settle down in the vicinity of modern Ankara, and the steppe's ability to support massive numbers of horses was a huge tactical advantage.  Nahuatl had nothing like that far as I can see.

I'm not sue the proto-Aztecs were tiny nomadic bands.  I think they had agriculture.  Besides, language replacement took place in the Old World without horse.  For instance the Afro-Asiatic speakers seemed to have conquered Sumeria at some point well before horses were common in the area.

I think they might have had wagons, but year the moment I posted this I thought of the Akkadians. 

[PDH]

I think they might have had wagons, but year the moment I posted this I thought of the Akkadians.

English, please.

[Queequeg]

I think the Semitic invaders of Mesopotamia during the time of the Sumerians-who would later be called Akkadians-might have had wagons, but most of the migrants were probably on foot.  This directly contradicts my previous post wherein I couldn't remember another time a settled quasi-nomadic people conquered and assimilated a settled agricultural society.  The Akkadians did it. 

[PDH]

You don't need a migration of people to have a diffusion of culture.  The bell beaker spread 4-5000 years ago seems to indicate this.

[Razgovory]

I've noticed that Psellos and I think alike often.  Poor, guy.

[Queequeg]

You don't need a migration of people to have a diffusion of culture.  The bell beaker spread 4-5000 years ago seems to indicate this.

Wouldn't some kind of core nucleus of migrants be assumed? 

[citizen k]

You don't need a migration of people to have a diffusion of culture.  The bell beaker spread 4-5000 years ago seems to indicate this.

Wouldn't some kind of core nucleus of migrants be assumed?

Trade between groups should be sufficient in most cases.

[Queequeg]

What is meant by culture?

[Queequeg]

To use an example I am familiar with, the proto-Uralics had extensive ties with the Indo-Europeans. Much of the material culture was shared, and there was a lot of linguistic contact. Genetic admixture was inevitable, but likely far less so than in areas of outright conquest by earliest Indo-European groups. Some Uralic groups-the Proto-Hungarians- could be spoken of as sharing a material culture with other Eurasian pastoralists, having received large parts of the Indo-European "package." But genetic admixture and linguistic intermingling still happened. Assuming that a linguistic and material culture could change in this period without genetic admixture seems unlikely. Particularly linguistic element.

[jimmy olsen]

With the rise of genetic sequencing of ancient remains the academic tide has turned against the "pots, not people" paradigm in tabor of migration and expansion.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/10/volkerwanderung-back-with-a-vengeance/#.UP6FiB01gm8