Fiona recently gave an overview of the VariKin project for CoastFM and SourceFM in Cornwall. She talked to Ben Makin on his Celebrity Science show about our three projects on kinship term evolution and the KinBank database, kinship language usage, and fieldwork on acquisition by children. The conversation ranged further into speculation on how the language … Read more
This summer I worked with Dr Alice Mitchell researching how person reference terms are used in child-directed speech in English. To do this we made use of the CHILDES database (example pictured below), a collection of transcriptions of children’s speech. Instances of person reference were recorded and coded into five categories, kin terms, kin terms … Read more
Post by Péter Rácz. We use large cross-cultural datasets to test theories of cultural evolution. These tests face what is commonly referred to as “Galton’s problem” (see here for an elegant overview). Since cultural traits co-evolve (think historical linguistics) and are traded freely in close proximity (think Sprachbund effects), their co-variance will be partly explained … Read more
Notions of family and kin terms vary in complexity and structure, so to what extent does linguistic and cultural variation affect the acquisition of kinship knowledge? While kinship provides the major framework for social organisation in many societies, we still know very little about how children learn to categorise different kinds of kin. The ‘Children’s … Read more
The past few weeks the lab has hosted Dr Joe Blythe as Benjamin Meaker Visiting Fellow from the University of Bristol’s Institute for Advanced Studies (thanks IAS!). Joe’s final event is this evening, and we’re delighted to be hosting his public lecture: Conversation across languages and cultures: Cross-linguistic perspectives on taking turns to talk. Details: … Read more
Today we are delighted to welcome colleagues from around the globe as we meet for this evening’s opening of the CAKTAM Workshop. Over the next few days we’ll be sharing and learning together, ideas and methods for children’s acquisition of kinship knowledge. We’ll be keeping you updated on Twitter and providing an overview here of all the … Read more
Upcoming Workshop Children’s Acquisition of Kinship Knowledge: Theory and Method 25th-26th January 2018, Bristol, UK How do children learn kinship concepts? Given that both kin terms and kinship systems vary in complexity, to what extent does linguistic and cultural variation affect the acquisition of kinship knowledge? For many societies around the world, kinship provides the … Read more
Post by Catherine We at the excd.lab are a highly interdisciplinary bunch, with backgrounds spanning anthropology, linguistics, psychology, philosophy, music, biology, and statistics. Nowhere is this more evident than in our weekly journal club, where we come together (in an archaeology laboratory!) to discuss cultural evolution and learn more about each other’s areas of research. … Read more
Over summer, lab members have been super-busy on their various projects, taking advantage of the quiet(er) environment out of the teaching term. In the autumn, we have PhD upgrades, submissions, and vivas; papers to submit; some lab members to farewell (boo), and excitingly, a number of folk will be presenting at the Inaugural Cultural … Read more
Last week, the excd.lab sent a team to “Big Bang Bristol“, a two day science, technology, engineering, and maths extravaganza. Guest post by Shakti Puri & Lucy Harries. The fair had the purpose of introducing children to research through hands-on experiments, activities, and live demonstrations. Our stall, entitled the ‘Science of Culture’, consisted of … Read more