Explaining Crow-Omaha Kinship Structures with Anthro-informatics

American Museum Natural History, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Peter Whiteley (Anthropology) and Dr. Ward Wheeler (Invertebrate Zoology/Scientific Computing) of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, will adapt software designed for phylogenetic research (the study of evolutionary relatedness among various groups of biological organisms), to develop and apply an innovative anthro-informatics approach to cross-cultural data on human kinship and social systems. Using data drawn from published ethnographies and ethnographic databases, the researchers will use the software to compare social, cultural, and ecological features associated with a historically critical system of reckoning kinship and family relations worldwide. Kinship systems once organized all social systems, prior to the emergence of the state, and, therefore, explaining kinship systems is key to understanding patterns of human social evolution. The software to be used (POY4) allows for testing likelihoods of feature transmission horizontally through space (i.e., via diffusion of learned behavior) as well as vertically through time (via simple inheritance). This is important because human behavior is learned between cultures as well as passed down within single cultures. The focal kinship systems, which appear to be evolutionarily transitional, are known collectively as Crow-Omaha systems by specialists. The hypotheses to be tested include whether they have distinctive associations with other features of social organization, whether they evolve from other known systems, and whether certain economic and ecological conditions favor their rise and spread. The research will enable scientists to better explain the associations of particular kinship systems and other behavioral phenomena, resulting in significant implications for the understanding human social organization over time and space. Funding this research also supports graduate student education.