A Micro-, Meso-, and Macro-level Descriptive Analysis of Disputes within a Social Network
91
his degree is three. Famess refers to the aggregate
of all path-distances, or links, a source actor is
from all other target actors in the network. Famess
scores for each actor equal the row sum of all
actors by actors’ path-distances. As the matrix is
symmetrical, the bottom half duplicates the top
half, the column counts replicate the row counts.
The degree measure of centrality indicates that
Latif and Ishmael are equally central, Miriam and
Sakhina occupy secondary positions, and KP and
Ishmael’s mother and sister occupy peripheral po
sitions. The degree measure of centrality suggests
that there are three distinct roles within the social
network. Famess, a slightly more discriminating
measure, indicates that Latif is the most central
member of the network and suggests that four roles
comprise the social network.
While these diagrams provide us with graphic
and quantifiable summaries of the data, they also
aid us in depicting the various roles and relations
that constitute this particular social structure. For
example, every direct link between households, ex
cept for that between Ishmael and Latif, is between
a female and a male. This observation, keeping in
mind the small size of the network, might help sub
stantiate the alliance theorist position of marriage
practices, and, more specifically, Yalman’s (1971)
and Dumont’s (1957) claim of the importance of
the cross-sibling link in Dravidian kinship. Yalman
writes, “It is these claims of the brothers and sis
ters upon each other which are the fundamental
principle Dumont has detected as the common
background in South Indian kinship” (1971: 359).
Given our micro- and meso-level data, the di
rection of compliance or dependency may also be
organized into a dependency matrix (Fig. 4). In this
matrix 0 refers to no dependency and 1 denotes the
dependency of the row actor on the column actor.
Only direct (one link) expressions of dependency
will be noted.
Fig. 4: Dependency Matrix of Household Members
The matrix highlights both the direction of de
pendency along rows and the number of depen
dents along columns. Except for Latif, all other
actors in the matrix are dependent on some other
actor; Sakhina is the only person dependent on
two people - her husband and her brother. Latif,
as expected, has the most number of dependents,
three, followed by Ishmael with two. The depen
dency ties correspond with the measures of central
ity, with each direct single link now transformed
into a dependency relationship. Dependency as a
measure of power confirms that Latif is the most
powerful member of this network.
Dependency relationships are transitive in the
sense that, if KP is dependent on Miriam and Mi
riam is dependent on Latif, then KP is also depen
dent on Latif. Latif has second-order, or indirect,
power over KP. We can show these second-order
relationships by squaring the matrix (see Bradley
and Meek 1986).
Fig. 5: 2nd Order Dependency Matrix
CL
Ui
Miriam
Latif
Sakhina
Ishmael
IMS
Total
KP
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
Miriam
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Latif
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Sakhina
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Ishmael
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
IMS
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
Total
0
0
2
0
0
0
2
Fig. 5 shows that only KP and Ishmael’s family
are indirectly dependent on Latif and that no one
else is indirectly dependent on anyone else. By
summing the first- and second-order matrices the
total number of dependent relationships is shown.
Fig. 6: Aggregate Dependency Matrix
cl
Ui
Miriam
Latif
Sakhina
Ishmael
IMS
Total
(X
«
Miriam
Latif
Sakhina
Ishmael
IMS
Total
KP
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
KP
0
1
1
0
0
0
2
Miriam
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
Miriam
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
Latif
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Latif
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Sakhina
0
0
1
0
1
0
2
Sakhina
0
0
1
0
1
0
2
Ishmael
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
Ishmael
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
IMS
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
IMS
0
0
1
0
1
0
2
Total
0
1
3
0
2
0
6
Total
0
1
5
0
' 2
0
8
Anthropos 89.1994
