Chatwin Was Right About the Urge to Travel
Travel Blog • Frank Bures • 06.24.08 | 12:25 PM ET
Bruce Chatwin famously made the case for an innate urge to travel, a la nomadism, in his books Anatomy of Restlessness and The Songlines. Now the Economist is reporting that scientists have found a genetic marker that rewards “exploratory behavior” and “novelty seeking.” The paper observes, “One suggestion is that long-distance migration selects for long alleles (see chart) because they reward exploratory behaviour. This might be an advantage in migratory societies because it encourages people to hunt down resources when they constantly move through unfamiliar surroundings.”