Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 114, Issue 49, Pages 12910-12915Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1706416114
Keywords
language; kinship; coevolution; cultural evolution; population genetics
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [SES 0725470]
- Singapore Ministry of Education [MOE2015-T2-1-127]
- Te Punaha Matatini
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
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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 post-marital 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.
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