from Hacker News

A phylogenetic reconstruction of a Palaeolithic myth [PDF]

by forgot_again on 5/16/20, 1:12 AM with 1 comments

• by JPLeRouzic on 5/16/20, 6:46 AM

  Biology's tools applied to myths to understand how they may have evolved. It is a very innovative work, but it is so innovative that one may think that it is a bit artificial.

  It is also nice to see texts written in Tifinagh. This script is used in North Africa since the 3rd century BCE. Unfortunately there is no mention of Ethiopia's Ge'ez script, which is one of the oldest alphabets (9th century BCE).

  And in reflection it makes look at phylogenetic reconstruction in biology. I remember a professor telling orally that there are a lot of randomness in DNA evolution and that phylogenetic reconstruction is actually a bit artificial.