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The Lineage Cycle in Southern and Eastern Yugoslavia 1
Author(s) -
Šoć E. A. HAMMEL DJORDJE
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1973.75.3.02a00110
Subject(s) - lineage (genetic) , variance (accounting) , fertility , variation (astronomy) , demography , geography , genealogy , history , evolutionary biology , sociology , biology , population , economics , genetics , physics , accounting , gene , astrophysics
Named local patrilines in southern and eastern Yugoslavia ( vamilije, rodovi ) vary in the number of individual households contained in each. Data from thirteen locations on over 12,000 lineages and 62,000 constituent households are examined to determine the source of such variation in what is here called “lineage density.” Demographic, economic, and cultural factors account for about half the variance in lineage density, but even in a model in which nominal economic and cultural factors are ideally scaled to give them maximal weight, naturally scaled factors of time depth and fertility, that is the mechanics of the cycle of lineage development, account for almost three‐fourths of the explainable variance. Defects in the data and in the model are discussed, but the conclusion remains that demographic data, too seldom collected by ethnographers, are of paramount importance in understanding social process.