Kinship structures create persistent channels for language transmission

J. Stephen Lansing, Cheryl Abundo, Guy S. Jacobs, Elsa G. Guillot, Stefan Thurner, Sean S. Downey, Lock Yue Chew, Tanmoy Bhattacharya, Ning Ning Chung, Herawati Sudoyo, and Murray P. Cox
PNAS December 5, 2017 114 (49) 12910-12915; first published November 20, 2017 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1706416114

  1. Edited by Simon A. Levin, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, and approved October 13, 2017 (received for review April 27, 2017)

Significance

Associations between genes and languages occur even with sustained migration among communities. By comparing phylogenies of genes and languages, we identify one source of this association. In traditional tribal societies, marriage customs channel language transmission. When women remain in their natal community and men disperse (matrilocality), children learn their mothers’ language, and language correlates with maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA. For the converse kinship practice (patrilocality), language instead correlates with paternally inherited Y chromosome. Kinship rules dictating postmarital residence can persist for many generations and determine population genetic structure at the community scale. The long-term association of languages with genetic clades created by kinship systems provides information about language transmission, and about the structure and persistence of social groups.

Abstract

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.

Footnotes

  • ↵1J.S.L and C.A. contributed equally to this work.

  • ↵2To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: jlansing{at}ntu.edu.sg.

  • Author contributions: J.S.L., C.A., G.S.J., S.S.D., L.Y.C., T.B., H.S., and M.P.C. designed the research; C.A., G.S.J., E.G.G., S.T., S.S.D., and N.N.C. performed analyses; and J.S.L., C.A., G.S.J., and M.P.C. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1706416114/-/DCSupplemental.

  1. J. Stephen Lansinga,b,c,1,2,
  2. Cheryl Abundob,d,1,
  3. Guy S. Jacobsb,
  4. Elsa G. Guillote,f,
  5. Stefan Thurnera,b,g,h,i,
  6. Sean S. Downeyj,
  7. Lock Yue Chewb,d,
  8. Tanmoy Bhattacharyaa,k,
  9. Ning Ning Chungb,d,
  10. Herawati Sudoyol,m,n, and
  11. Murray P. Coxo
  1. aSanta Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501;
  2. bComplexity Institute, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637723;
  3. cStockholm Resilience Center, Kräftriket, 104 05 Stockholm, Sweden;
  4. dSchool of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637371;
  5. eDepartment of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;
  6. fSwiss Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;
  7. gSection for Science of Complex Systems, Medical University of Vienna, A-1090 Vienna, Austria;
  8. hComplexity Science Hub Vienna, A-1080 Vienna, Austria;
  9. iInternational Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria;
  10. jDepartment of Anthropology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210;
  11. kTheory Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545;
  12. lGenome Diversity and Diseases Laboratory, Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, Jakarta, Indonesia;
  13. mDepartment of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia;
  14. nSydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia;
  15. oStatistics and Bioinformatics Group, Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand

  1. Edited by Simon A. Levin, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, and approved October 13, 2017 (received for review April 27, 2017)

Significance

Associations between genes and languages occur even with sustained migration among communities. By comparing phylogenies of genes and languages, we identify one source of this association. In traditional tribal societies, marriage customs channel language transmission. When women remain in their natal community and men disperse (matrilocality), children learn their mothers’ language, and language correlates with maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA. For the converse kinship practice (patrilocality), language instead correlates with paternally inherited Y chromosome. Kinship rules dictating postmarital residence can persist for many generations and determine population genetic structure at the community scale. The long-term association of languages with genetic clades created by kinship systems provides information about language transmission, and about the structure and persistence of social groups.

Abstract

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.

  • language
  • kinship
  • coevolution
  • cultural evolution
  • population genetics

Footnotes

  • ↵1J.S.L and C.A. contributed equally to this work.

  • ↵2To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: jlansing{at}ntu.edu.sg.

  • Author contributions: J.S.L., C.A., G.S.J., S.S.D., L.Y.C., T.B., H.S., and M.P.C. designed the research; C.A., G.S.J., E.G.G., S.T., S.S.D., and N.N.C. performed analyses; and J.S.L., C.A., G.S.J., and M.P.C. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1706416114/-/DCSupplemental.

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Kinship structures channel language transmission
J. Stephen Lansing, Cheryl Abundo, Guy S. Jacobs, Elsa G. Guillot, Stefan Thurner, Sean S. Downey, Lock Yue Chew, Tanmoy Bhattacharya, Ning Ning Chung, Herawati Sudoyo, Murray P. Cox
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Dec 2017, 114 (49) 12910-12915; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1706416114
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