This article has two related aims: to evaluate some of the principal (and often untested) hypotheses for sociocultural variation in family organization among East African societies and to offer insights into both the strengths and weaknesses of the phylogenetic method for comparative anthropological studies at regional levels. We start with the expectation that the relatively fine scale variation in traits observed at the regional level is a result of adaptations to local and institutional features. As such, historical continuities will disappear as descendant populations adapt to their new environments, thereby generating a new level of independence between daughter populations. In presenting both conventional and phylogenetically informed tests of a range of hypotheses for family variation among East African societies, this article provides an empirically based assessment of the validity of this view. [kinship, marriage, phylogenetic method, comparative method, East Africa]
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