Omaha Terminologies

Global Distribution Patterns and How They May Have Come About

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7738626
AutoresGunter Schlee (0000-0001-6108-906X, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, autor de correspondencia), Günther Schlee (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle (Saale), Germany)
Año2017
Volumen51
Número2
Páginas117-141
Fecha de publicación2017-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCross-Cultural Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1069-3971 • E-ISSN: 1552-3578
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1069397117691011
OpenAlexW2587839315
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas24

Omaha kinship terminologies are distributed globally to the north and south of the belt of ancient “high cultures” which stretches from the Mediterranean Sea to East and Southeast Asia in the Old World and includes parts of Mesoamerica and the Andes in the New World. This article offers an explanation for this curious distribution of Omaha terminologies. In so doing, it reviews examples of Omaha terminologies in Central Asia and on the Horn of Africa, noting their defining characteristics and those other aspects of social organization with which they are associated. In conclusion, it is suggested that a continuum of lineage-based systems, including systems with Omaha terminologies, was split into two areas of concentration, one to the north and the other to the south, as ancient “high cultures,” based on intensive agricultural production, arose among them, reverting, in the process, to terminological systems with a cognatic bias like those of the Eskimo type that are associated with urbanization and statehood

Archaeology · Biology · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Kinship · Mediterranean climate · Mesoamerica · Social complexity · Social organization · Sociology · Southeast asia · Urbanization · Anthropology · Categorization, perception, and language · History · Language and cultural evolution · Linguistics and language evolution · Ecology