The global variability and recurrence of kinship terminology

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.

About the speaker

Dr Sam Passmore is an interdisciplinary scholar who applies statistical and macro-evolutionary models to cultural and linguistic phenomena to measure diversity and identify patterns of change. Dr Passmore has worked on several large-scale cross-cultural and cross-linguistic databases including databases which document global variation in kinship terminology, grammar, and performing arts. He is interested in the measurement of cultural and linguistic diversity and then using this understanding to understand the categorical and historical patterns of cultural phenomena.