ABSTRACT

The worldwide distribution of ethnolinguistic diversity is highly uneven and concentrated in particular regions; sub-Saharan Africa from Nigeria to Chad, Melanesia, much of the New World and Southeast Asia. Although the question is frequently posed as if explaining such diversity was the problem, it is better reformulated in terms of models to explain uniformity. The underlying pattern is diversity, but ethnic homogeneity has developed in particular regions usually by the expansion of one group and the assimilation of its neighbours.