This paper describes a formal method for the spatiotemporal augmentation of kinship network analysis (stKNA). stKNA builds on well-defined KNA methods for modelling large-scale interactions between networks of affines and cognates, enabling 3-dimensional visualisation of their real-world emergence across geographic space and historical time. Using intuitive and freely accessible software such as Google Earth for visualisation, stKNA offers a means for both experts and non-experts to identify patterns of persistent cohesion within and between kinship communities, together with associated communal attachment to specific geographic territories. stKNA has been successfully applied in Australia as a form of forensic evidence connected with culturally-based legal claims to lands, waters and natural resources, in cases spanning thousands of square kilometres, hundreds of years, and populations comprising tens of thousands of individuals
Kinship Network Analysis is a specialised subfield of social anthropology based on certain theoretical propositions about interactions between individuals, combined with certain methodological approaches to modelling those interactions and analysing emergent patterns. Both theoretical and methodological elements of KNA are highly formal, deriving from set and graph mathematic principles. Simultaneously, the methodological element of KNA is optimised for empirical application to real-world population datasets, ranging from tens of individuals to hundreds of thousands. Due to its well-formalised definition, KNA is amenable to computer processing using accessible cross-platform software for modelling, analysis and visualisation.
While KNA is conventionally focused on abstract topological space, where the distribution of interactions between individuals is graphed in 2- and 3-dimensions using vectors determined by characteristics such as relationship strength, relatively little focus has been given to the incorporation of real geographic and chronological space. Inspired by the ‘time-geographic’ theories of the late Swedish human geographer Torsten Hägerstrand, and drawing on geospatial technology principles developed for transport optimisation, stKNA demonstrates an example of formal empirical social anthropology in practice.
