Folktale transmission in the Arctic provides evidence for high bandwidth social learning among hunter–gatherer groups

There exist striking resemblances in the stories of ethnolinguistic groups separated by vast geographic distances, with nearby groups having the most in common. The causes of these geographic associations are uncertain. Here we use method and theory from population genetics to examine cultural transmission in folktale inventories of 18 hunter–gatherer groups spread across 6000 km of Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. We find that linguistic...