27 de July de 2019
Understanding the linguistic and cultural diversity of indigenous Lowland South America (LSA) has been hampered in the past by a lack of documentary and comparative work by linguists. Meanwhile, our understanding of the history and diversity of other language families and the cultural norms of their speakers has been transformed by the use of quantitative phylogenetic techniques, allowing linguists and anthropologists a new window into the cultural dynamics that create human diversity. Our project brings together ethnolinguistic expertise in Tupi and Cariban languages (Belem-based, led by Birchall) with phylogenetic and kinship expertise (Bristol-based, led by Jordan). We will build a linguistic/cultural database and use phylogenetic methods to (a) infer language relationships and (b) investigate how distinctive kinship and marriage systems have culturally evolved in LSA. Our partnership activities include exchange visits, methods training, and network-building events, with the timely goal of stimulating further collaborative comparative work on LSA..
Coordenadora:
Integrantes do MPEG: Fiona Jordan – coordenadora; Joshua Birchall – integrante.
