The Global Variability & Recurrence of Kinship Terminology - Sam Passmore
Channel: ECDI - Evolution of Cultural Diversity Initiative
Date: 2023-03-27

SYNAPSE Seminar: The Global Variability & Recurrence of Kinship Terminology
Speaker: Sam Passmore
Date: 27 Mar 2023
Abstract:
Family is perhaps the most universal and unique human phenomena. Every person has a family, and every family is different. But underneath the distinctiveness of each family lies the normative behaviours of a society. The constraints of social norms mean despite the particular differences, there are structural regularities in family organisation within cultural groups. The centrality of normative kinship systems to broader social structure has been a perpetual anthropological interest, but how much kinship systems vary between societies is a question yet to be quantitatively answered. Kinship terminology offers a window into the variability and regularity of kinship systems around the world. Using a new database of 1,229 kinship terminology (Kinbank), I transpose a global set of kinship terminology into a continuous morphospace, or kinspace. I use the kinspace to ask three major questions: 1) what are the major clusters of kinship terminology diversity, 2) what languages make up those clusters and how similar are they? And finally, 3) how do the clusters relate to each other? Using a combination of clustering and dimensionality reduction techniques I show that the number of recurring types in kinship terminology is much higher than the putative six category typology, and that within-type variability is an important dimension to consider when examining kinship terminology diversity. Using the data-discovered types, I show that all types can be joined through a network of change, suggesting languages change through a limited subspace of structural possibility, which may limit kinship diversity and explain the global recurrence of kinship terminology structure.

This seminar is part of the ANU School of Culture, History & Language SYNAPSE Trans-Disciplinary Seminar Series.