mac@uvacs.UUCP (09/27/83)
In response to (uiucdcs.2906), the request for kinship structures of tribal societies. Paul Friedrich's book "Language, Context, and the Imagination" [1] contains an essay "Proto-Indo-European Kinship", discussing this for the PIE peoples, ancestors of Irish and a host of European and Asian languages. His conclusion is "In brief, PIE culture had patriarchal, partilocal families that probably lived in small houses or adjacent huts. Villages were small, distant, and presumably exogamous. In addition to a large virilateral [2] affinal set (consonant with patrilocal groups), the terminology at the avuncular- nepotic level was of Lounsbury's Omaha II type." The technical discussion of kinship structures was a little beyond me, but the linguistic analysis is interesting. Friedrich, for example, cites reflexes of PIE PIE "nepo:t" PIE "awyos" (mother's brother) -------------------------------------------------------- Sanskrit na'pa:t ChSo, descendant Avestan napa: ChSo, descendant Greek nepodes descendant aia mother earth anepsios cousin, nephew Armenian haw PaFa Latin nepo:s SbCh, ChCh avus Pa(Mo)Fa (SiCh, DaCh) avunculus MoBr ava MoSi avia MoMo Old Irish nefe ChSo aue SbCh, ChCh niae SiSo amnair MoBr necht SiDa Gothic ni(th)iis ChSo awo: PaMo Old High nevo PaBr-SbCh o:heim PaBr German (MoBr-SiSo) (MoBr-SiSo) Anglo-Saxon nefa SiSo e:am MoBr, PaFa nift SiDa Old Russian ne'tij ChSo (SiSo) nestera SbDa Common Slavic ujI MoBr Serbian nec'a^k SiSo Lithuanian nepotis ChSo, SbSo avy'nas MoBr ava` MoSi Old Prussian awis MoBr Lycian xuga MoFa Hittite h,uh,h,as' PaFa Pa=parent Fa=father Mo=mother Ch=child So=son Da=daughter Sb=sibling Br=brother Si=sister The hypothesized Proto-Indo-Hittite culture dates back to the fourth millenium BC, probably located between the Danube and the Oxus. Their language may have been related to the Caucasian languages, characterized by the few vowels. Caucasian cultures are also partiarchal, with either patrilineal or double descent. For those interested in PIE and other ancient atrifacts, I recommend the other essays in the same book, "Proto-Indo-European Trees" and "The PIE Goddess of dawn: Awsos". The former reconstructs the climate of the PIE speakers on the basis of the types of trees whose name is common to Indo-European languages, hence which were probably a feature of the PIE environment. Remember that the climate several millenia ago was quite different. The latter essay covers a word that shows up in many languages (e.g. as East, Easter). -------------------------------------- [1] Paul Friedrich, "Language, Context, and the Imagination: Essays by Paul Friedrich", Stanford University Press, 1979. [2] A woman's husband's close blood relatives