DENHAM, Woodrow W. and WHITE, Douglas R. (UCI).
SIDED WITH OMAHA AND A TWIST: THE THREE LOGICS OF ALYAWARRA KINSHIP.

The rich cognitive and network ethnography of the Alyawarra offers a test of and counterargument to the proposition that for any given culture to operate coherently, only a single logic is possible. First, the Alyawarra strictly adhere to Logic 1 which entails marriage rules and 'normative' kinship terms that conform to named patrimoieties (exogamous sides) and named endogamous matrimoieties that unify interleaved and alternating generations. Second, the axiom of generational closure - successive sibling-in-law links that close into cycles - does not apply because female age at marriage is significantly lower than that of males, as commonly occurs in Australian systems. The resulting age bias yields Logic 2 which allows the system to evolve dynamically across a class of network models influenced stochastically by age distributions at marriage. Marriage practices associated with Logic 2 lie outside the 'norms' of Logic 1. Third, patrilineages engage as wife-givers and wife-takers in system-inflecting exceptional marriages that constitute lineage remapping of generations. The resulting Logic 3 entails the use of extra-'normative' Omaha terminologies. Examining relationships amongst these logics at the level of practice shows how they form a coherent dynamical system oriented towards demographically and strategically inflected adaptation. A strictly 'normative' approach to modeling kinship systems would be misleading as a theoretical paradigm. We argue for broader frameworks that take into account the interplay of multiple cultural logics as integral within a networked system of kinship practices.