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