Product Description

The intent of this collection of original essays is to revitalize the study of kinship and exchange in a social network perspective. The collection combines studies of empirical systems of marriage and descent with investigations of the flow of material resources. This book marks the emergence of a new era in the study of kinship and exchange using a productive combination of ethnographic substance with formal methods, one which leaves behind older structural-functionalist and culturalist assumptions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1706207 in Books
• Published on: 1998-06-13
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.30 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From the Inside Flap
Structural analysis of human societies combines the richness of ethnographic case studies with the formal rigor of social network analysis, the theory of games and of social exchange and social cognition, algebraic and graph theoretical analysis of social structure, and more dynamic, computer-driven analyses of social processes. These approaches focus on linkages and relations as well as groups and individuals. In light of the concept of the social embedding of economic and political organization, it is imperative that ethnological concerns with kinship, marriage and social exchange are conceptualized and reanalyzed as fundamental to the way that contemporary societies, economies and polities are organized.

Social network analysis focuses on social relations and the flow of resources within networks of actors and investigates the emerging patterns of social order generated over time. By integrating anthropological studies of kinship and exchange with the social network perspective, anthropology profits from the precise and flexible framework, while the study of social structure deepens its understanding of social pattern and process by considering holistic ethnographic cases. Studies of marriage, descent and exchange can reflect the social, material and symbolic aspects of human societies and assess change without sacrificing rigor and systematic understanding of social and economic patterns.

This collection, which included restudies of classic ethnographic cases and fieldwork studies of kinship and exchange in contemporary tribal and peasant societies, aims to revitalize the study of kinship and exchange in a social network perspective. The volume brings together studies of empirical systems of marriage and descent with investigations of the flow of material resources in human societies to demonstrate how the social and the material aspects of society are related. It addresses issues of concern to anthropology, history, sociology and economics and marks the emergence of a new era in the study of kinship and exchange that uses a productive combination of ethnographic substance with formal methods, leaving behind older structural-functionalist and culturalist assumptions.

From the Back Cover
Kinship, Networks and Exchange offers a stocktaking and then extension of recent ideas in kinship and exchange processes from the overall perspective of social networks. The editors have done a superb job of putting together an integrated suite of empirical and theoretical papers that illustrate a broad cross-section of the current state of anthropological practice in the three thematic areas indicated in the title. The series of problem-oriented case studies successfully demonstrates how traditional ethnographic approaches can be combined productively with a variety of formal (algebraic, game-theoretic, dada-reduction) methods. The methodologies explored here are relatively novel, and all are illustrated with highly believable empirical applications to either new or classic ethnographic data sets. Economic and political anthropologists, and economists and sociologies with interdisciplinary interests in social structure, will find many of these papers of great value, as will various area specialists (Africa, Andes, Polynesia, Java). -- Malcolm Dow, Northwestern University

The essays collected in this outstanding volume uniformly interweave rich contextual data with beautifully crafted formal network methods to yield new and often powerful insights into kinship systems, exchange structures, and, more generally, social processes of fundamental importance to human societies. -- Peter S. Bearman, Columbia University

Collectively, the articles in this volume constitute a radical rethinking of traditional approaches in the study of kinship, exchange, and social structure. The advances come from a careful blending of theory and method. New conceptualizations have led the authors top refine their theories. It is an impressive accomplisyhment that will be of interest to any social scientist working on the formal analysis of institutional processes. -- John Mohr, University of California at Berkeley

About the Author
Thomas Schweizer is trained in anhthropology, sociology and psychology. A professor of anthropology at the University of Cologne and Director of its Institute of Ethnology, he has also taught at the universities of Beyreuth and Tuebingen and is a recipient of the Leibniz award of the German Research Society. Schweizer's research focuses are agrarian change and rural social organization in Indonesia, and comparative and quantitative studies of social organization.

Douglas White is a professor of anthropology and social networks at the University of California, Irvine, and Director of their Graduate Program in Social Networks. A student of social theory and mathematical social science, as well as anthropology, White was one of the co-designers of the standard cross-cultural sample. The recipient of NSF and Humboldt awards, White previously researched Mexican peasants, the Irish language, Austrian farming villages, and comparative studies of the sexual division labor.