ABSTRACT
The modes of movement across community lines included travel on foot, on horseback, and by boat. In one sense, cross-community migration has changed little over the course of human history: people leave their home community, travel a distance, and learn to live among people of different language and culture. The patterns of language distribution in North America and Mesoamerica show that groups have migrated back and forth over the ages. One pattern of migration is that of speakers of Central Amerind languages who have moved from valley to valley in the mountainous areas between Utah in the northwest and Oaxaca in the southeast of Mexico. The stages of migration introduced the travelers to new languages and new cultures; at the same time, the company of migrants became a culture unto itself. Cross-community migration has been the basic pattern underlying most major movements of humanity.
