How does the Genesis account of the Tower of Babel compare with other traditions about the tower?

There is a naturalistic proposal which reverses the cause and effect.

In the biblical account, building the tower is the cause for God to scramble the languages which causes them to disperse.

The naturalistic theory (based in a common ancestor) says that as man dispersed, small groups developed their own branches of the language until they could no longer communicate. I know of no connection to a tower in this proposal.

Another tradition reminiscent of the tower:

American Indians did not all speak the same language, but would gather to trade or make peace and war together. These gathering included shamanistic ritual around the totem pole. It is claimed the pole itself never represented an idol.

Edenics

There are theories of languages arising independently.

In opposition, there is a project called "Edenics" which theorizes that a form of Hebrew was spoken prior to the tower and that all other primitive languages were formed by scrambling the letter of each word. Common scrambled phonemes are being collected and traced.