The rebirth of kinship: evolutionary and quantitative approaches in the revitalization of a dying field

Kinbank: A global database of kinship terminology

For a single species, human kinship organization is both remarkably diverse and strikingly organized. Kinship terminology is the structured vocabulary used to classify, refer to, and address relatives and family. Diversity in kinship terminology has been analyzed by anthropologists for over 150 years, although recurrent patterning across cultures remains incompletely explained. Despite the wealth of kinship data in the anthropological record, comparative studies of kinship terminology are hindered by data accessibility. Here we present Kinbank, a new database of 210,903 kinterms from a global sample of 1,229 spoken languages. Using open-access and transparent data provenance, Kinbank offers an extensible resource for kinship terminology, enabling researchers to explore the rich diversity of human family organization and to test longstanding hypotheses about the origins and drivers of recurrent patterns. We illustrate our contribution with two examples. We demonstrate strong gender bias in the phonological structure of parent terms across 1,022 languages, and we show that there is no evidence for a coevolutionary relationship between cross-cousin marriage and bifurcate-merging terminology in Bantu languages. Analysing kinship data is notoriously challenging; Kinbank aims to eliminate data accessibility issues from that challenge and provide a platform to build an interdisciplinary understanding of kinship.

Emergence of kinship structures and descent systems: multi-level evolutionary simulation and empirical data analysis

In many indigenous societies, people are categorized into several cultural groups, or clans, within which they believe they share ancestors. Clan attributions provide certain rules for marriage and descent. Such rules between clans constitute kinship structures. Anthropologists have revealed several kinship structures. Here, we propose an agent-based model of indigenous societies to reveal the evolution of kinship structures. In the model, several societies compete. Societies themselves comprise multiple families with parameters for cultural traits and mate preferences. These values determine with whom each family cooperates and competes, and they are transmitted to a new generation with mutation. The growth rate of each family is determined by the number of cooperators and competitors. Through this multi-level evolution, family traits and preferences diverge to form clusters that can be regarded as clans. Subsequently, kinship structures emerge, including dual organization and generalized or restricted exchange, as well as patrilineal, matrilineal and double descent systems. These structures emerge depending on the necessity of cooperation and the strength of mating competition. Their dependence is also estimated analytically. Finally, statistical analysis using the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, a global ethnographic database, empirically verified the theoretical results. Such collaboration between theoretical and empirical approaches will unveil universal features in anthropology.

Gender Differences in Social Networks Based on Prevailing Kinship Norms in the Mosuo of China

Although cooperative social networks are considered key to human evolution, emphasis has usually been placed on the functions of men’s cooperative networks. What do women’s networks look like? Do they differ from men’s networks and what does this suggest about evolutionarily inherited gender differences in reproductive and social strategies? In this paper, we test the ‘universal gender differences’ hypothesis positing gender-specific network structures against the ‘gender reversal’ hypothesis that posits that women’s networks look more ‘masculine’ under matriliny. Specifically, we ask whether men’s friendship networks are always larger than women’s networks and we investigate measures of centrality by gender and descent system. To do so, we use tools from social network analysis and data on men’s and women’s friendship ties in matrilineal and patrilineal Mosuo communities. In tentative support of the gender reversal hypothesis, we find that women’s friendship networks in matriliny are relatively large. Measures of centrality and generalized linear models otherwise reveal greater differences between communities than between men and women. The data and analyses we present are primarily descriptive given limitations of sample size and sampling strategy. Nonetheless, our results provide support for the flexible application of social relationships across genders and clearly challenge the predominant narrative of universal gender differences across space and time.

Human behavioral ecology and niche construction

We examine the relationship between niche construction theory (NCT) and human behavioral ecology (HBE), two branches of evolutionary science that are important sources of theory in archeology. We distinguish between formal models of niche construction as an evolutionary process, and uses of niche construction to refer to a kind of human behavior. Formal models from NCT examine how environmental modification can change the selection pressures that organisms face. In contrast, formal models from HBE predict behavior assuming people behave adaptively in their local setting, and can be used to predict when and why people engage in niche construction. We emphasize that HBE as a field is much broader than foraging theory and can incorporate social and cultural influences on decision-making. We demonstrate how these approaches can be formally incorporated in a multi-inheritance framework for evolutionary research, and argue that archeologists can best contribute to evolutionary theory by building and testing models that flexibly incorporate HBE and NCT elements.

When does matriliny fail? The frequencies and causes of transitions to and from matriliny estimated from a de novo coding of a cross-cultural sample

The question of when and why societies have transitioned away from matriliny to other types of kinship systems-and when and why they transition towards matriliny-has a long history in anthropology, one that is heavily engaged with both evolutionary theory and cross-cultural research methods. This article presents tabulations from a new coding of ethnographic documents from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS), tallying claims of transitions in kinship systems both away from and to matriliny using various levels of stringency. We then use our counts as the outcome variables in a set of Bayesian analyses that simultaneously estimate the probability of a transition occurring given societal covariates alongside the conditional probability of detecting a transition given the volume of ethnographic data available to code. Our goal is to estimate the cross-cultural and comparative frequency of transitions away from and to matriliny, as well as to explore potential causes underlying these patterns. We find that transitions away from matriliny have been significantly more common than 'reverse transitions' to matriliny. Our evidence suggests that both rates may be, in part, an artefact of the colonial and globalizing period during which the data comprising much of the current ethnographic record were recorded. Analyses of the correlates of transitions away from matriliny are consistent with several of the key causal arguments made by anthropologists over the past century, especially with respect to subsistence transition (to pastoralism, intensive agriculture and market economies), social complexity and colonialism, highlighting the importance of ecological factors in such transitions. This article is part of the theme issue 'The evolution of female-biased kinship in humans and other mammals'.

The evolution of female-biased kinship in humans and other mammals

Female-biased kinship (FBK) arises in numerous species and in diverse human cultures, suggesting deep evolutionary roots to female-oriented social structures. The significance of FBK has been debated for centuries in human studies, where it has often been described as difficult to explain. At the same time, studies of FBK in non-human animals point to its apparent benefits for longevity, social complexity and reproduction. Are female-biased social systems evolutionarily stable and under what circumstances? What are the causes and consequences of FBK? The purpose of this theme issue is to consolidate efforts towards understanding the evolutionary significance and stability of FBK in humans and other mammals. The issue includes broad theoretical and empirical reviews as well as specific case studies addressing the social and ecological correlates of FBK across taxa, time and space. It leverages a comparative approach to test existing hypotheses and presents novel arguments that aim to expand our understanding of how males and females negotiate kinship across diverse contexts in ways that lead to the expression of female biases in kinship behaviour and social structure. This article is part of the theme issue 'The evolution of female-biased kinship in humans and other mammals'.

Family ties: the multilevel effects of households and kinship on the networks of individuals

Among social mammals, humans uniquely organize themselves into communities of households that are centred around enduring, predominantly monogamous unions of men and women. As a consequence of this social organization, individuals maintain social relationships both within and across households, and potentially there is conflict among household members about which social ties to prioritize or de-emphasize. Extending the logic of structural balance theory, I predict that there will be considerable overlap in the social networks of individual household members, resulting in a pattern of group-level reciprocity. To test this prediction, I advance the Group-Structured Social Relations Model, a generalized linear mixed model that tests for group-level effects in the inter-household social networks of individuals. The empirical data stem from social support interviews conducted in a community of indigenous Nicaraguan horticulturalists, and model results show high group-level reciprocity among households. Although support networks are organized around kinship, covariates that test predictions of kin selection models do not receive strong support, potentially because most kin-directed altruism occurs within households, not between households. In addition, the models show that households with high genetic relatedness in part from children born to adulterous relationships are less likely to assist each other.

Residence rule flexibility and descent groups dynamics shape uniparental genetic diversities in South East Asia

OBJECTIVES

Social organization plays a major role in shaping human population genetic diversity. In particular, matrilocal populations tend to exhibit less mitochondrial diversity than patrilocal populations, and the other way around for Y chromosome diversity. However, several studies have not replicated such findings. The objective of this study is to understand the reasons for such inconsistencies and further evaluate the influence of social organization on genetic diversity.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We explored uniparental diversity patterns using mitochondrial HV1 sequences and 17 Y-linked short tandem repeats (STRs) in 12 populations (n = 619) from mainland South-East Asia exhibiting a wide range of social organizations, along with quantitative ethno-demographic information sampled at the individual level.

RESULTS

MtDNA diversity was lower in matrilocal than in multilocal and patrilocal populations while Y chromosome diversity was similar among these social organizations. The reasons for such asymmetry at the genetic level were understood by quantifying sex-specific migration rates from our ethno-demographic data: while female migration rates varied between social organizations, male migration rates did not. This unexpected lack of difference in male migrations resulted from a higher flexibility in residence rule in patrilocal than in matrilocal populations. In addition, our data suggested an impact of clan fission process on uniparental genetic patterns.

CONCLUSIONS

The observed lack of signature of patrilocality on Y chromosome patterns might be attributed to the higher residence flexibility in the studied patrilocal populations, thus providing a potential explanation for the apparent discrepancies between social and genetic structures. Altogether, this study highlights the need to quantify the actual residence and descent patterns to fit social to genetic structures.

Modernizing Evolutionary Anthropology : Introduction to the Special Issue

Evolutionary anthropology has traditionally focused on the study of small-scale, largely self-sufficient societies. The increasing rarity of these societies underscores the importance of such research yet also suggests the need to understand the processes by which such societies are being lost-what we call "modernization"-and the effects of these processes on human behavior and biology. In this article, we discuss recent efforts by evolutionary anthropologists to incorporate modernization into their research and the challenges and rewards that follow. Advantages include that these studies allow for explicit testing of hypotheses that explore how behavior and biology change in conjunction with changes in social, economic, and ecological factors. In addition, modernization often provides a source of "natural experiments" since it may proceed in a piecemeal fashion through a population. Challenges arise, however, in association with reduced variability in fitness proxies such as fertility, and with the increasing use of relatively novel methodologies in evolutionary anthropology, such as the analysis of secondary data. Confronting these challenges will require careful consideration but will lead to an improved understanding of humanity. We conclude that the study of modernization offers the prospect of developing a richer evolutionary anthropology, by encompassing ultimate and proximate explanations for behavior expressed across the full range of human societies.

Adoption Does Not Increase the Risk of Mortality among Taiwanese Girls in a Longitudinal Analysis

Adopted children often experience health and well-being disadvantages compared to biological children remaining in their natal households. The degree of genetic relatedness is thought to mediate the level of parental investment in children, leading to poorer outcomes of biologically unrelated children. We explore whether mortality is related to adoption in a historical Taiwanese population where adoption rarely occurred among kin. Using Cox proportional hazards models in which adoption is included as a time-dependent covariate, we show that adoption of girls does not increase the risk of mortality, as previously suggested; in fact, it is either protective or neutral with respect to mortality. These results suggest that socio-structural variables may produce positive outcomes for adopted children, even compared to biological children who remain in the care of their parents.

Intergenerational and sibling conflict under patrilocality. A model of reproductive skew applied to human kinship

Here we argue that models developed to examine cooperation and conflict in communal breeders, using a "tug-of-war" model of reproductive skew generated by incomplete control, are an appropriate way to model human kinship systems. We apply such models to understand the patterns of effort put into competition between father and son and between brothers in conflict over family resources in a patrilineal kinship system. Co-resident kin do not necessarily emerge with equal shares of the cake in terms of reproductive output. The models show that, depending on the efficiency with which they can gain more control of the resource, on the marriage system, and on the relatedness of the partners in conflict, individuals can do better to help their relatives breed rather than fight each other for the resources needed to reproduce. The models show that when a son's father is still breeding with his mother, sons should not compete for any share of reproduction. However, under polygyny, increased effort is spent on father/son and brother/brother conflict. Fathers will win the majority of reproduction if dominant to sons (in contrast to the finding that daughters-in-law win in conflict over mothers-in-law in patrilocal kinship systems, which has been suggested as explaining the evolution of menopause). Hence who wins in the sharing of reproduction depends not just on which sex disperses but also on the relative competitive ability of all individuals to exploit family resources. Anthropologists have long argued that cultural norms can reduce conflict. These formal evolutionary models help us to quantify the effects of reproductive conflict in families, throwing light on the evolutionary basis not just of patterns of reproductive scheduling, but also human kinship and marriage systems.

The evolution of matrilineal kinship organization

Matrilineal kinship organization is a human social system that emphasizes interactions between matrilineal kin, i.e. individuals related only through females. The 'matrilineal puzzle' refers to the potential for tension characteristic of this social system, owing to the conflict between the interests and responsibilities of men in their roles as brother/uncle versus husband/father. From an evolutionary perspective, matrilineal kinship organization is puzzling when it diverts investment of resources from the individuals who provide the potentially highest reproductive returns. I use a game-theoretic framework to investigate a particular form of matrilineal inheritance--the transfer of property from a maternal uncle to a sororal nephew. The analysis reveals two mechanisms that may make this strategy a stable evolutionary outcome. First, a polygynous male has multiple wives, and hence multiple brothers-in-law; with matrilineal inheritance, each additional brother-in-law may transfer resources to the male's wife's offspring, thus potentially contributing to the male's inclusive fitness. Second, the husband of a polyandrous female is effectively 'sharing' paternity with other men; depending on the number of husbands, he may be better off investing in his sister's offspring. I conclude by discussing how these results address the challenges posed by the occurrence of matrilineal kinship organization.

The matrilocal tribe: an organization of demic expansion

This article integrates (1) research in the historical dynamics of state societies relating group solidarity and group expansion to cultural frontiers, (2) comparative research in anthropology relating matrilocality to a particular variety of internal politics and a particular form of warfare, and (3) interdisciplinary reconstructions of large-scale "demic expansions" and associated kinship systems in prehistory. The argument is that "metaethnic frontiers," where very different cultures clash, are centers for the formation of larger, more enduring, and more militarily effective groups. In small-scale non-state societies, the major path toward the formation of such groups is the establishment of cross-cutting ties among men. This often involves the adoption of matrilocal norms. The current distribution of matrilocality and matrilineality around the world may be partly a residue of major demic expansions in prehistory involving matrilocal tribes. This hypothesis is evaluated with a range of evidence, including information regarding the spread of two language families, Bantu and Austronesian.