The Patrilocal Band: A Linguistically and Culturally Hybrid Social Unit¹

Abstract

N ENDURING and usually unquestioned assumption underlying gen-A eral anthropological theory is that which suggests the "homogeneity" of very simple societies. For the purposes of the development of evolutionary theory, or for the generation of a descriptive ethnography, or for the discussion . of the validity of the "genetic" approach in historical linguistics, it is customarily assumed that "primitive,)' or "simple" or "folk" societies contain individuals who think, and act, and speak more or less alike.* Such a society is small, isolated, nonliterate, and homogeneous, with a strong sense of group solidarity. The ways of living are conventionalized into the coherent system which we call "a culture" (Redfield 1947:294). The concept of primitive or "tribal" culture is based on three fundamental aspects of the behavior of members of tribal societies. First, it is a construct that represents the ideal, norm, average, or expectable behavior of all members of a fairly small, simple, independent, self-contained, and homogeneous society (Steward 1955 :44).

Changing Settlement Organization in the Late Pleistocene of the Wadi al-Hasa, West-Central Jordan

“…Furthermore, the large number of assemblages in the middle probably reflects the time-averaged reuse of locations on the landscape as well as the general flexibility in settlement and technological strategies. While originally modeled as a relatively clear-cut bipolar opposition, and as long-indicated ethnographically (e.g., Owen, 1965), forager behavior is clearly more complicated and multidimensional, and likely includes elements of both technological strategies. Other complicating factors for unpacking settlement and technological organization might include duration of occupation, frequency of reoccupation, site function, seasonality, and resource procurement activities.…”

Kinship at the intersection of lineage and linguistics: a study of Hmong relatedness in Western contexts

“…Smith and Johnson's (1986) study of the Nganhcara peoples of Cape York found that women in cross-dialect marriages maintained their patrilects after marriage, while in many Amazon communities linguistic exogamy is strictly practiced (Aikhenvald, 2002(Aikhenvald, , 2003Jackson, 1983). Australian Aboriginals, for example, are a linguistic community where women have been noted to bring non-local linguistic features into their husband's clan (Owen, 1965). In these societies, Owen suggests the result is a hybrid language where 'it is not possible to define one language as the language of the group' (p. 683).…”