Genealogy in Motion

Genealogy is best visualized dynamically. Unlike modern family trees, medieval “trees of consanguinity“ were designed to be imagined in motion. For more on trees of consanguinity, check out the Genealogies of Modernity Journal: The Genealogies of Modernity Project is an initiative that explores the nature of modernity, the various ways modernity arose, and how to think about other possible modernities. 0:54 The ignorant narrator states that consanguinity regulations are the origin of the phrase, “six degrees of separation.“ In fact, the phrase seems to have no historical connection to consanguinity regulations. According to a Google NGram search, the phrase only became prominent after the 1990 production of John Guare’s Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-nominated play of that name. Although it is often associated with sociologist Stanley Milgram’s research on the “small-world problem” of social network theory, Milgram did not use the phrase in the article that popularized the concept. Stanley Milgram, “The Small-World Problem,” Psychology Today 1, no. 1 (May 1967): 60–67. When conducting the research, Milgram seems not to have been aware of analogous genealogical concepts; see Thomas Blass, The Man Who Shocked The World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram (New York: Basic Books, 2009), 137–46. For related research updated for an internetworked age, see Duncan J. Watts, Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age, 1st ed. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003).