ABSTRACT
The metaphor of “structure” is certainly of ancient vintage in sociology, and arguably the concept of social structure-along with that of culture-is absolutely central to the discipline’s understanding of itself and its subjectmatter. The recurring feature of all structural analyses worthy of the name, I would submit, is that their analytical focus is not on the characteristic traits of the units under consideration. Instead, structural analysis, almost by definition, focuses upon the relationships between the units. Therefore any structural analysis of social phenomena is likely to focus upon relationships among social groupsvariously defined-as the crucial element in our theorizing about such phenomena.
