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Theory of Lineage Organizations
Author(s) -
Ballonoff Paul Alan
Publication year - 1983
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.1983.85.1.02a00040
Subject(s) - embodied cognition , ethnography , sociology , lineage (genetic) , population , epistemology , statistical inference , social theory , mathematical theory , anthropology , mathematics , demography , biology , statistics , philosophy , biochemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , gene
Descriptions used by ethnography can be embodied in a mathematical theory, yielding strong measurable inferences. This theory is interpreted and applied to an empirical example, to derive population measures from lineage descriptions. The theory is purely cultural in that it derives testable implications from social anthropological descriptions without use of techniques from classical demography. The new techniques are not subsumed by “general systems” or statistical methods commonly taught, therefore implying these methods are fundamentally wrong. [social anthropology, mathematical theory, cultural theory, population measures]