Abstract
Post-marital residence patterns are an important element of human social organization. However, their identification in prehistory is challenging, as they leave almost no direct traces in the archeological record.
Cross-cultural researchers attempted to identify cross-cultural correlates of post-marital residence through statistical analysis of ethnographic data. Several studies have demonstrated that in agricultural societies large dwellings (over 60 m2) are strongly associated with matrilocality, where spouses live in the same community as the wife's family.
In contrast, smaller dwellings are strongly associated with patrilocality, where spouses live with or near husband's family. This finding was positively received by archeologists, as the size of houses on settlements is usually easy to detect, and the association has been already applied in several archeological contexts, including historical northern Iroquoian groups, Chaco Canyon region, Hohokam culture or Neolithic Greece.
The previous studies were methodologically limited because they included geographically imbalanced samples of societies, did not account for greater variability in post-marital residence patterns beyond matri- and patrilocality, and did not account for the statistical non-independence of societies due to shared ancestry (Galton's problem). In this study, we perform a series phylogenetic comparative analyses to test for the association between post-marital residence and house size using a sample of 86 pre-industrial societies and a time-calibrated "supertree" based on genetic and linguistic data as a phylogenetic control.
Our analysis includes additional explanatory variables, specifically building material, presence of agriculture, and stability of settlement. Our results confirm a strong cross-cultural association between matrilocality and house size, although very large dwellings (over 120 m2 ) can be associated with all types of post-marital residence.
The effect of agriculture on house becomes insignificant once the stability of settlement is taken into account. Our results suggest that reliable inferences about social organization can be made from archeological record.