Random alliance networks

• Published in: Social networks Vol. 35; no. 3; pp. 394 - 405
• Main Authors: Roth, Camille, Gargiulo, Floriana, Bringé, Arnaud, Hamberger, Klaus
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.07.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems; Alliance networks; Alliances; Computer Science; Ethnology; History, theory and methodology; Humanities and Social Sciences; Kinship; Kinship networks; Marriage; Methodology; Modeling and Simulation; Morphology; Morphology indicators; Multinomial model; Nonlinear Sciences; Sexuality. Marriage. Family relations; Social Anthropology and ethnology; Social networks; Sociology; Sociology of the family. Age groups; Morphology indicators; Multinomial model; Kinship networks; Alliance networks; Matrimonial network; Methodology; Kinship; Affinity; Social network; Network Analysis; morphology indicators; multinomial model; kinship networks; alliance networks
• ISSN: 0378-8733; 1879-2111
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socnet.2013.04.006

•We define sociologically relevant morphological indicators for alliance networks.•We propose a method to compare empirical alliance networks with a random baseline.•We scrutinize the matrimonial role of social groups as asserted by ethnological theory.•The contribution of chance is significant on many of the 21 examined corpuses. The morphological properties of kinship and marriage alliance networks, such as circuits, are typically considered as indicators of sociological phenomena — yet, they may also be partly coincidental. To assert the contribution of chance to these morphological features, we develop a standardized method where empirical alliance networks are compared with a random baseline. We apply our framework to a variety of empirical cases and show that some corpuses are remarkably well reconstructed by our random model, while others still feature significant divergencies which may be partly connected to field-based experience. On the whole, our approach may be used to scrutinize the matrimonial role of social groups as asserted by native or ethnological theory.