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Kinship structures create persistent channels for language transmission

Guillot, Elsa G.; Lansing, J. Stephen; Abundo, Cheryl; Jacobs, Guy S.; Guillot, Elsa; Thurner, Stefan; Downey, Sean S.; Chew, Lock Yue; Bhattacharya, Tanmoy; Chung, Ning Ning; Sudoyo, Herawati; Cox, Murray P.

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Authors

Elsa G. Guillot

J. Stephen Lansing

Cheryl Abundo

Guy S. Jacobs

Stefan Thurner

Sean S. Downey

Lock Yue Chew

Tanmoy Bhattacharya

Ning Ning Chung

Herawati Sudoyo

Murray P. Cox



Abstract

© 2017, National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Languages are transmitted through channels created by kinship systems. Given sufficient time, these kinship channels can change the genetic and linguistic structure of populations. In traditional societies of eastern Indonesia, finely resolved cophylogenies of languages and genes reveal persistent movements between stable speech communities facilitated by kinship rules. When multiple languages are present in a region and postmarital residence rules encourage sustained directional movement between speech communities, then languages should be channeled along uniparental lines. We find strong evidence for this pattern in 982 individuals from 25 villages on two adjacent islands, where different kinship rules have been followed. Core groups of close relatives have stayed together for generations, while remaining in contact with, and marrying into, surrounding groups. Over time, these kinship systems shaped their gene and language phylogenies: Consistently following a postmarital residence rule turned social communities into speech communities.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 13, 2017
Publication Date Dec 5, 2017
Deposit Date Feb 28, 2018
Publicly Available Date Feb 28, 2018
Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Print ISSN 0027-8424
Electronic ISSN 1091-6490
Publisher National Academy of Sciences
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 114
Issue 49
Pages 12910-12915
DOI https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1706416114
Keywords language, kinship, coevolution, cultural evolution, population, genetics
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/902495
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1706416114
Contract Date Feb 28, 2018

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