Cognitive Order in Genealogical Lists

Forty-seven spontaneously recited genealogies from Belgrade, Yugoslavia, are examined for evidence of internal order. Order was judged according to the following criteria of precedence in the order of recitation: males before females, agnates before non-agnates, consanguines before affines, ascendants before descendants, generationally close relatives before generationally distant, close relatives before distant ones, live relatives before dead ones, patrilateral relatives before matrilateral. Individual lists show great consistency in the application of these criteria but are also strongly idiosyncratic. Consistency across all forty-seven lists is less than the consistency within individual lists. Styles of grouping relatives on the lists show similar characteristics. Socioeconomic variables of sex, age, occupation, education, father's occupation and education, and indices of mobility fail to explain differences in ordering and clustering style between genealogies. However, persons of high occupational status tend to recall more relatives and also to cluster parents, siblings, and children more closely than do other persons. The data thus show strong consistency when described according to biogenealogical characteristics, and sociological variables do not explain much about the differences between informants.