Kin, Clan and Community in Indo-European Society (Volume 9) (Copenhagen Studies in Indo-European)

This book analyses the latest trends in Indo-European studies, combining linguistic study with insights from archaeology, anthropology and genetics in an attempt to shed new light on the social structure of the pastoralist society of Proto-Indo-European speakers.

An introduction on the benefits of approaching Indo-European studies from an anthropological angle precedes nine chapters representing the book’s two parts: one on kinship terminology and family structure, and one on wooing and marriage.

Part one includes a lengthy overview of Proto-Indo-European kinship terminology, as well as five chapters on individual branches: Anatolian, Avestan, Latin, Germanic and Albanian. Part two comprises a chapter on consanguinity and marriage in early Indo-European societies, one on Anatolian marriage and marriage types, and one on the processes and rites related to wooing.

Together, these form the first study of Indo-European family structure to draw on linguistics, archaeology and genetics, an important contribution to our understanding of how social and family structures developed in prehistoric and early historic times.

Birgit Anette Olsen is professor of Indo-European linguistics in the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen.