Reconstructing the History of Residence Strategies in Indo- European–Speaking Societies: Neo-, Uxori-, and Virilocality

Document Type

Article

Authors

Laura Fortunato, Department of Anthropology, University College London, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UKFollow

Abstract

Linguists and archaeologists have used reconstructions of early Indo-European residence strategies to constrain hypotheses about the homeland and trajectory of dispersal of Indo-European languages; however, these reconstructions are largely based on unsystematic and ahistorical use of the linguistic and ethnographic evidence, coupled with substantial bias in interpretation. Here I use cross-cultural data in a phylogenetic comparative framework to reconstruct the pattern of change in residence strategies in the history of societies speaking Indo-European languages. The analysis provides evidence in support of prevailing virilocality with alternative neolocality for Proto-Indo-European, and that this pattern may have extended back to Proto-Indo-Hittite. These findings bolster interpretations of the archaeological evidence that emphasize the “non-matricentric” structure of early Indo-European society; however, they also counter the notion that early Indo-European society was strongly “patricentric.” I discuss implications of these findings in the context of the archaeological and genetic evidence on prehistoric social organization.

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Recommended Citation

Fortunato, Laura (2011) "Reconstructing the History of Residence Strategies in Indo- European–Speaking Societies: Neo-, Uxori-, and Virilocality," Human Biology: Vol. 83: Iss. 1, Article 7.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol/vol83/iss1/7