A Social Network Analysis Approach to Modeling Social-Economic Complexity in Traditional Kin-Based Systems (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Archaeological Research, 1998
Recent research on Old World chiefdoms and states has largely retreated from the general comparative explanatory paradigm of the 1970s and has focused instead on more historically oriented analyses of culture-specific developmental trajectories. Both theoretical and empirical work tend to emphasize a heterogeneous, conflict-based model of complex society and political economy. This analytical framework has been quite successful in documenting variation and historically determined patterning in the organization of urbanism, craft production, specialization, and exchange. I present an overview of this research and argue that we now need to reintegrate culturally specific analyses within a modified comparative~generalizing perspective on complexity.
Abusir and Saqqara in the year 2015, 2017
The current state of Egyptological research faces a problem to process the huge volume of data. Researchers have dealt with the datasets consisting of thousands entities. Such a volume cannot be evaluated efficiently and rigorously using a traditional manual manner of paper and pencil. Although methods of complex networks (CNA) have been used for the quantification of a number of historical aspects, nobody has yet applied CNA to the Old Kingdom context. This paper proposes a new approach based on the method of complex network analysis which provides new possibilities for the better understanding of the Old Kingdom social and administrative developments. The treatise demonstrates the first promising results of this technique on an assessment of nepotism in the second half of the Old Kingdom exemplified in the numerous illustrative graphical visualizations.
This paper utilizes recent advantages in Social Network Analysis software to examine differences in the structures (topology) of Algonquian and Iroquois social networks. These social networks were modeled in a simplified manner by looking at just two core variables that define connections between actors in the society: kinship and political organization. The actors consist not of individuals, but of core family units that have both political and kinship relations with other family units. The models examine 4,096 actor family units representing approximately 33,000 individuals. This number is arbitrary, but likely represents the coastal population of Native southern New England, and perhaps three-fourths the population of the League of the Iroquois. After establishing the general characteristics of these networks, I model the effects of population loss on their structural integrity by randomly removing a proportion of families from each. The results of the Social Network Analysis strongly suggest that the underlying political and kinship organizations of these two societies resulted in significant differences in their ability to maintain cohesiveness in the face of population loss.
The Network Formation Origin of Tribal Societies
This paper proposes a network formation model for explaining the stability of tribal societies. The model is supported by the idea that every two members of a tribe should have benefited from being connected to each other in order for the whole tribe to be stable. It also considers the constraints that the ecosystem brought to social interaction in pre-modern contexts. The model has three predictions. First, both homogeneous and heterogeneous tribes could have been stable regardless of technological development. Second, the social complexity of tribes was a function of technological development (having access to agriculture should have enabled the emergence of larger and more complex societies), interaction costs (if they were too low or too high, no complex society should have emerged), and environmental conditions (poor ecosystems should not have allowed the formation of complex societies). Finally, the model predicts that collapses of agricultural societies could not come from environmental pressures, but from high interaction costs. The predictions are consistent with some of the most relevant human history patterns.
Connectivity matters!, 2023
Social differentiation and connectivity are obviously connected to social inequality, but this relation needs further investigation. We start from a historical positioning of the term ‘social inequality’ within the current archaeological discussion. Here we focus on households as the principal units of decision-making. In accordance with current research and for the time being, we accept differences in house floor areas as wealth differences. To describe wealth or income inequality in archaeology, the well-known Gini coefficient has been used several times since the 1980s. Here, the Gini coefficient is explained and, for the first time, the concepts of the inequality frontier and the inequality extraction ratio (which are based on the Gini coefficient) are introduced into archaeology. As a case study, the development of inequality is investigated for household sizes in two important sites of the Bulgarian Aeneolithic – the tell sites of Poljanica and Ovčarovo, respectively. Finally, an important unresolved problem can be identified and discussed: where is the fundamental place of social inequalities within past societies, especially within what has been denoted as segmentary societies?
Die Reihe "Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie" soll einem in der jüngeren Vergangenheit entstandenen Bedürfnis Rechnung tragen, nämlich Examensarbeiten und andere Forschungsleistungen vornehmlich jüngerer Wissenschaftler in die Öffentlichkeit zu tragen. Die etablierten Reihen und Zeitschriften des Faches reichen längst nicht mehr aus, die vorhandenen Manuskripte aufzunehmen. Die Universitäten sind deshalb aufgerufen, Abhilfe zu schaffen. Einige von ihnen haben mit den ihnen zur Verfügung stehenden Mitteln unter zumeist tatkräftigem Handanlegen der Autoren die vorliegende Reihe begründet. Thematisch soll darin die ganze Breite des Faches vom Paläolithikum bis zur Ar-FKlRORJLH GHU 1HX]HLW LKUHQ 3ODW] ¿QGHQ Ursprünglich hatten sich fünf Universitätsinstitute in Deutschland zur Herausgabe der Reihe zusammengefunden, der Kreis ist inzwischen größer geworden. Er lädt alle interessierten Professoren und Dozenten ein, als Mitherausgeber tätig zu werden und Arbeiten aus ihrem Bereich der Reihe zukommen zu lassen. Für die einzelnen Bände zeichnen jeweils die Autoren und Institute ihrer Herkunft, die im Titel deutlich gekennzeichnet sind, verantwortlich. Sie erstellen Satz, Umbruch und einen Ausdruck. Bei gleicher Anordnung des Umschlages haben die verschie-GHQHQ EHWHLOLJWHQ 8QLYHUVLWlWHQ MHZHLOV HLQH VSH]L¿VFKH Farbe. Finanzierung und Druck erfolgen entweder durch sie selbst oder durch den Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, der in jedem Fall den Vertrieb der Bände sichert. Herausgeber sind derzeit: Jens Lüning (Frankfurt am Main)
This volume challenges previous views of social organization focused on elites by offering innovative perspectives on "power from below." Using a variety of archaeological, anthropological, and historical data to question traditional narratives of complexity as inextricably linked to top-down power structures, it exemplifies how commoners have developed strategies to sustain nonhierarchical networks and contest the rise of inequalities. Through case studies from around the world - ranging from Europe to New Guinea, and from Mesoamerica to China - an international team of contributors explores the diverse and dynamic nature of power relations in premodern societies. The theoretical models discussed throughout the volume include a reassessment of key concepts such as heterarchy, collective action, and resistance. Thus, the book adds considerable nuance to our understanding of power in the past and opens new avenues of reflection that can help inform discussions about our collective present and future.
Social Organization and the Evolution of Hierarchy in Southeastern Chiefdoms
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 130.160.4.77 on TueEthnohistorical analysis of Southeastern chiefdoms reveals a pattern of hierarchy very different from those proposed in the ideal evolutionary types of Kirchhoff and Service. In this area, Mississippian aristocratic organization probably evolved on a uniform base of ranked exogamous matriclan and moiety systems. Despite stratification into classes of noble and commoner, nobilities retained their character as exogamous groups. Ranking by genealogical distance from the royal line was restricted to the close kin of the paramount. A limited agnatic inheritance of nobility was adopted to offset the effects of noble exogamy on the offspring of male nobles in an otherwise uterine system.
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.
Related papers
J. Müller, W. Kierleis, N. Taylor, eds. Perspectives on Socio-environmental Transformations in Ancient Europe, 2024