Matrilocal residence is ancestral in Austronesian societies
Proceedings Of The Royal Society • Vol/Iss. 276(1664) • The Royal Society • • Published In • Pages: 1-9 •
By Jordan, Fiona M. , Gray, Russell D. , Greenhill, Simon J. , Mace, Ruth
Hypothesis
Matrilocality and/or matriliny will be characteristic of ancient Austronesian societies. Specifically, this will be found in "four nodes corresponding to points in Austronesian prehistory where coherent speech communities have been suggested": the proto-Austronesian (PAn) root, the proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP); the proto-Central-Eastern-Malayo-Polynesian (PCEMP); and the proto-Oceanic (POc) (p.3).
Note
Both PAn and PMP were found to be matrilocal (posterior probability=0.70 and 0.99, respectively). Patrilocality is reconstructed with 0.80 probability for PCEMP (this node is only present in 84% of the tree sample with a combined probability of 0.67, indicating uncertainty). POc was reconstructed with 0.67 patrilocality (with a large degree of uncertainty). (p. 3-4). These findings suggest that matrilocality was predominant even earlier than previously hypothesized (evidence for societies ca 5000-4500 BP, when hypothesized for societies ca 3200 BP).
| Test Name | Support | Significance | Coefficient | Tail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Markov-chain Monte Carlo | Partial | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. |
| Variable Name | Variable Type | OCM Term(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Post-Martial Residence | Dependent | Residence |
| Ancestral state | Independent | Total Culture, Language |