The Evolution of Kinship Terminologies: Nonprescriptive Forms of Asymmetric Alliance in Indonesia

Thomas Trautmann has recently suggested that kinship terminologies with Crow-Omaha equations may derive historically from asymmetric prescriptive terminologies on the basis of very similar vertical equations. This argument is likely not applicable to eastern Indonesia and parts of Sumatra, where asymmetric prescriptive terminologies are well known. First, they have their own nonprescriptive variants of the latter, from which they may have developed historically, and second, their terminologies lack Crow-Omaha equations. The article discusses a range of relevant ethnographic cases in the context of the evolution of kinship terminologies and practices away from prescriptive systems based on a rule or expectation that all egos in the society should marry a certain class of relative. The aim is partly to draw attention to the phenomenon and account for it, as well as to qualify Trautmann’s suggestion as far as these two regions of Indonesia are concerned.