Families on the move? The case of Proto-Finnic speakers

The speakers of Uralic languages arrived on the shores of the Baltic Sea by the beginning of the Iron Age (c 500 BCE). It has been suggested that the language was brought by a large number of people who arrived in at least two migratory waves. However, the current genetic evidence allows for both large and small numbers of incomers with a wide range of sex ratios. In this article, we combine archaeological, genetic, and linguistic research and discuss the different possibilities of how these newcomers formed and established families at the time of their arrival and in the next generations. It seems likely that the Finnic-speaking males established families with non-Finnic women, resulting in multilingual households. The complexity of family issues in prehistory is also being discussed. It is noted that the data allow interpretations supporting both patrilocal and matrilocal residence patterns. Since it is possible to interpret the data in multiple ways, the underlying biases deriving from modern concepts of a family should always be acknowledged.