Alvin W. Wolfe

The rise of network thinking in anthropology

Abstract The encyclopedic inventory of the first half of the twentieth century, “Anthropology Today”, published in 1953, gave little inkling that within a few decades developing trends in social theory, in field experience, in electronic data processing, and in mathematics would combine to bring to prominence a distinctive theoretical approach using a quite formal network model for social systems. Now, sophisticated mathematics and computer programming permit sophisticated network models — networks seen as sets of links, networks seen as generated structures, and networks seen as flow processes. Although network thinking has shown a dramatic rise from the “Anthropology Today” of 1953 to the current anthropology of 1978, it is predicted to soar in the next quarter century, much of the weighty burden of network analysis having been lifted from us by ever more rapid electronic data processing.

The Supranational Organization of Production: An Evolutionary Perspective [and Comments and Reply]

Fresh theoretical perspectives are required for understanding the rapid expansion of international economic activity and especially the organization of production on a world scale through institutions of multinational enterprise. Ananthropological evolutionary approach which sees these developments as part of the generation of a new system at a supranational level of sociocultural integration seems appropiate to the task. The creation of such a new system is a matter of complex changes in the forms and relationships of many constituent subsystems, not simply a response to technoenvironmental stimuli. Among the cumulating changes are those relative to factors of production, those relative to transactions, and those relative to corporateness. Understanding of this developing supranational system requires delineation of newly emerging mechanism of control. A network model is suggested as appropriate to identifying the ways in which variation in any one part falls under some degree of control by the system represented by its complementary parts.

Policy Studies and Anthropology [and Comments and Reply]

An increasing number of anthropologists are involved in policy studies, studies which aim to change or to affect decision making with respect to important public issues. Characteristics of these studies are highlighted in contrast to traditional research assumptions given in the anthropological literature. It is the authors contention that research using traditional anthropological methods and techniques must be changed to accommodate policy studies. The boundaries within which anthropologists work are set by certain characteristics of policy studies: the duration of research, the requirement explicitly to assess future events, the fact that the conduct and format of policy research are largely determined by consumers rather than anthropologists, and the need to use measurement to supply objective verification of recommendations. Experience suggests that policy studies call for anthropologists with a commitment to public-service ideals rather than more narrow academic values. If this is true, what are the consequences for graduate training?