Family counts : deciding when to murder among the Icelandic Vikings
(2017) In Evolution and Human Behavior 38(1). p.175-180- Abstract
- In small scale societies, lethal attacks on another individual usually invite revenge by the victim's family. We might expect those who perpetrate such attacks to do so only when their own support network (mainly family) is larger than that of the potential victim so as to minimise the risk of retaliation. Using data from Icelandic family sagas, we show that this prediction holds whether we consider biological kin or affinal kin (in-laws): on average, killers had twice as many relatives as their victims. These findings reinforce the importance of kin as a source of implicit protection even when they are not physically present. The results also support Hughes' (1988) claim that affines are biological kin because of the shared genetic... (More)
- In small scale societies, lethal attacks on another individual usually invite revenge by the victim's family. We might expect those who perpetrate such attacks to do so only when their own support network (mainly family) is larger than that of the potential victim so as to minimise the risk of retaliation. Using data from Icelandic family sagas, we show that this prediction holds whether we consider biological kin or affinal kin (in-laws): on average, killers had twice as many relatives as their victims. These findings reinforce the importance of kin as a source of implicit protection even when they are not physically present. The results also support Hughes' (1988) claim that affines are biological kin because of the shared genetic interests they have in the offspring generation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/399f2f20-f11f-4f3a-ad8c-ddef5e59d93d
- author
- Palmstierna, Markel ; Frangou, Anna ; Wallette, Anna LU and Dunbar, Robin
- organization
- publishing date
- 2017-03
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Kinship, Affines, Murder, Icelandic Vikings, Alliances
- in
- Evolution and Human Behavior
- volume
- 38
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 6 pages
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85005939418
- wos:000395967500003
- pmid:29333057
- ISSN
- 1090-5138
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2016.09.001
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 399f2f20-f11f-4f3a-ad8c-ddef5e59d93d
- date added to LUP
- 2017-01-30 12:07:23
- date last changed
- 2022-03-01 19:09:21
@article{399f2f20-f11f-4f3a-ad8c-ddef5e59d93d,
abstract = {{In small scale societies, lethal attacks on another individual usually invite revenge by the victim's family. We might expect those who perpetrate such attacks to do so only when their own support network (mainly family) is larger than that of the potential victim so as to minimise the risk of retaliation. Using data from Icelandic family sagas, we show that this prediction holds whether we consider biological kin or affinal kin (in-laws): on average, killers had twice as many relatives as their victims. These findings reinforce the importance of kin as a source of implicit protection even when they are not physically present. The results also support Hughes' (1988) claim that affines are biological kin because of the shared genetic interests they have in the offspring generation.}},
author = {{Palmstierna, Markel and Frangou, Anna and Wallette, Anna and Dunbar, Robin}},
issn = {{1090-5138}},
keywords = {{Kinship; Affines; Murder; Icelandic Vikings; Alliances}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{175--180}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Evolution and Human Behavior}},
title = {{Family counts : deciding when to murder among the Icelandic Vikings}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2016.09.001}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2016.09.001}},
volume = {{38}},
year = {{2017}},
}