Per Hage

Eccentricity and centrality in networks

Abstract The classic concept of centrality discovered by Camille Jordan in the 19th century is introduced as a model for social network analysis. It is generalized to include the path center of a graph and illustrated with an application to two island networks in Oceania. It is shown to be a necessary addition to the concepts of degree, closeness and betweenness centrality as distinguished by Freeman.

The Ancient Maya Kinship System

This article suggests that the Maya kinship system was originally Kariera in type, based on bilateral cross-cousin marriage with cross-cutting patrilineal descent and alternate generation moieties. The quadripartite structure of the Maya kinship system was isomorphic to, and may have been the model for, the quadripartite structures of Maya cosmology and settlement. In this respect, the Maya kinship system was similar to Kariera systems in Australia and goes back to the small-scale communities of the Proto-Maya or Archaic period before 2000 B.C. By the Classic period, however, beginning around A.D. 250, there apparently were two different marriage systems in Maya society: a bilateral cross-cousin marriage system for commoners and a matrilateral cross-cousin marriage system for royalty and nobility. In this respect, Maya marriage practices were similar to those of the city-states in early Chinese civilization.

Linguistic Evidence for Primogeniture and Ranking in Proto-Oceanic Society

The presence of a seniority distinction in Proto-Oceanic sibling terminology has been used as evidence for primogeniture and ranking in Proto-Oceanic society. Cross-culturally, however, sibling terminologies with the seniority distinction are very common, found in egalitarian as well as ranked societies. A stronger argument can be made. If Proto-Oceanic society was based on primogeniture and ranking, the term for elder sibling should be marked in Oceanic terminologies. There is both diachronic and synchronic evidence in support of this hypothesis

A graph theoretic approach to the analysis of alliance structure and local grouping in highland New Guinea

Abstract This paper focuses on a set of structural properties which characterize the Gahuku‐Gama, a social and cultural unit in the Eastern Central Highlands of New Guinea. Gahuku‐Gama “society” has been described as a finite network, the members of which are social groups connected by bonds of traditional warfare and alliance. The aims of the paper are (1) to formalize some ordinary English terms which have been applied to this system; (2) to elucidate these properties through the application of graph theoretic concepts and theorems; (3) to use certain of these theorems in the prediction of empirical facts of local grouping; and (4) to suggest that this approach could usefully be adopted in relation to similar sociocultural systems in Highland New Guinea and elsewhere.

Marking theory and kinship analysis: Cross-cultural and historical applications

The concept of marking was discovered in phonology by Trubetzkoy and generalized to morphology and grammar by Jakobson. In a fundamental application to anthropology, Greenberg integrated a generalized concept of marking into a cognitivelinguistic theory of kinship universals. Greenbergs theory is important for three reasons: (1) it leads to the discovery and explanation of cross-cultural universals in kinship classification; (2) it predicts the order in which kin terms evolve and establishes, thereby, criteria for evaluating alternative, competing reconstructions of kinship systems; (3) it provides a means for inferring features of prehistoric social organization. This paper illustrates these applications and points out the typological and cognitive implications of marking effects in kinship systems. The analysis demonstrates that a formal deductive approach to kinship can yield results not obtainable by more usual informal and inductive methods.

The Proto-Numic Kinship System

On the basis of historical linguistic and ethnohistorical evidence, the Proto-Numic kinship system can be reconstructed as Kariera (Dravidianate) in type based on a rule of bilateral cross-cousin marriage. The reconstruction is consistent with semantic shifts in Numic kinship terminologies and with universal theories of kinship evolution which take Dravidianate systems as a starting point and assume irreversible drifts away from this point. The dialect continua of the Numic language family imply the presence of regional marriage networks as hypothesized for many other hunter-gatherer societies.

TATTOOING, GENDER AND SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN MICRO-POLYNESIA

Gells combinatorial analysis of variations in tattooing practices and social organization in Polynesia is shown to be incomplete. Our purpose is to revise and generalize Gells analysis and extend it to include the historically related societies of nuclear Micronesia. The discovery of the missing Micronesian variations has important implications for comparative studies of symbolism and social stratification in Oceania, and illustrates the advantages of combinatorial methods in anthropology.

Some genuine graph models in anthropology

After long implicit use, graph theory is beginning to assume its rightful place in anthropology. Current research on exchange in Oceanian societies (Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia) demonstrates its value for the classification, quantification, simulation, and enumeration of structural forms.