kinbank: Database of Kinship terminology

Kinbank is a database of kinship terminologies to be used for exploring cross-linguistic diversity in kinship organisation. The database includes 1229 languages and a set of 100 core kin types between Grandparents and Grandchildren, and between Parent’s siblings, and Parent’s siblings’ children. A major advantage of Kinbank is the focused language family sampling and sampling based on occurrence in existing anthropological databases (e.g. d-place.org), allowing us to test the relationship between languages and behaviour. This allows the use of phylogenetic methods to reconstruct the states of proto-kinship, account for common ancestry in models of kinship change, and test for correlated evolution between linguistic and behavioural patterns.

Project team: Fiona M. Jordan, Nicholas Evans, Simon J. Greenhill, Sam Passmore, Catherine Sheard, Wolfgang Barth, Kyla Quinn, Claire Bowern, Terhi Honkola, Joshua Birchall, Luis Henrique Oliveira, Paraskevi Argyriou, Jasmine Calladine, Maisie Ford, Isobel Clifton, Angarika Deb, Lucy Harries, Jo Hickey-Hall, Peter Racz, Seán G. Roberts, Robert M. Ross, Ewan Thomas-Colquhoun, Anouk Diederen, Lieke Hoenselaar, Maarten van den Heuvel, Niklas Metsäranta, Alice Mitchell

Publications from this project

Kinbank: A global database of kinship terminology

Passmore S, Barth W, Greenhill SJ, Quinn K, Sheard C, Argyriou P, Birchall J, Bowern C, Calladine J, Deb A, Diederen A, Metsäranta NP, Araujo LH, Schembri R, Hickey-Hall J, Honkola T, Mitchell A, Poole L, Rácz PM, Roberts SG, Ross RM, Thomas-Colquhoun E, Evans N, Jordan FM. 2023. Kinbank: A global database of kinship terminology. PLoS One, 18(5), e0283218.

Abstract DOI PDF

@article{Passmore2023,
  title = {Kinbank: A global database of kinship terminology},
  author = {Passmore, Sam and Barth, Wolfgang and Greenhill, Simon J. and Quinn, Kyla and Sheard, Catherine and Argyriou, Paraskevi and Birchall, Joshua and Bowern, Claire and Calladine, Jasmine and Deb, Angarika and Diederen, Anouk and Metsäranta, Niklas P. and Araujo, Luis Henrique and Schembri, Rhiannon and Hickey-Hall, Jo and Honkola, Terhi and Mitchell, Alice and Poole, Lucy and Rácz, Péter M. and Roberts, Seán G. and Ross, Robert M. and Thomas-Colquhoun, Ewan and Evans, Nicholas and Jordan, Fiona M.},
  journal = {PLOS ONE},
  volume = {18},
  number = {5},
  pages = {e0283218},
  publisher = {Public Library of Science (PLoS)},
  year = {2023},
  doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0283218},
  url = {https://simon.net.nz/articles/kinbank-global-database-kinship-terminology/},
}

Kin Against Kin: Internal Co-selection and the Coherence of Kinship Typologies.

Passmore S, Barth W, Quinn K, Greenhill SJ, Evans N, & Jordan FM. 2021. Kin Against Kin: Internal Co-selection and the Coherence of Kinship Typologies. Biological Theory, 16(3), 176–193.

Abstract DOI PDF

@article{Passmore2021,
  title = {Kin Against Kin: Internal Co-selection and the Coherence of Kinship Typologies.},
  author = {Passmore, Sam and Barth, Wolfgang and Quinn, Kyla and Greenhill, Simon J. and Evans, Nicholas and Jordan, Fiona M.},
  journal = {Biological Theory},
  volume = {16},
  number = {3},
  pages = {176--193},
  publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},
  year = {2021},
  doi = {10.1007/s13752-021-00379-6},
  url = {https://simon.net.nz/articles/kin-against-kin-kinship-typologies/},
}