Universals in the Structure and Evolution of Kinship Classification

University Of Utah, Salt Lake City UT

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract 0073805 This project will test Greenberg's cognitive-linguistic theory of kinship universals, an extension of Hage and Harary's research on lattice structures in the evolution of kinship systems. The objective is to discover, using models from graph theory, cross-cultural and historical marking relations in systems of kinship classification. The researchers will show that lexical universals are found in the domain of kinship just as they are in the domains of color and ethnobiology. The research will demonstrate the necessity of using comparative linguistic data to determine the direction of change in kinship terminologies and the value of such data in elucidating, through controlled comparison, their sociological determinants. The discovery of convergent developments in kinship systems belonging to different linguistic families can then be used to evaluate theories concerning the evolution of kinship systems in general. The discovery of marking asymmetries in kinship terminologies will have important implications for problems of typology and for the reconstruction of prehistoric kinship systems. This project will contribute scientific knowledge in cultural anthropology through the discovery and explanation of lawful regularities in kinship, the most basic of all human classification systems.