ABSTRACT
While not commonly included in the suite of classic psychological anthropological methods, we argue in this chapter that social network analysis is essential for the future development of cultural research, given how such analysis ensures that researchers link mental structures to actual social relations. In fact, what we discuss in this chapter relates quite centrally (and practically) to what came earlier in the book. For example, consider that in every cultural consensus analysis (the topic of Chapter 5), researchers are by default asking (either explicitly or implicitly) respondents to think about some domain of thought (e.g., forms snow can take, the meaning of addiction and life success, etc.) in reference to some particular social group: “How do members of your family/ your close friends/ people around here/ mainstream society/ etc. think about snow, addiction, life success, etc. …?” Consensus and cultural domain analysis, then, imply considering the social network within which cultural knowledge circulates. Overall, we detail here how personal network analysis helps researchers more tightly link culture (as shared knowledge) to particular social relationships, where culture is transmitted and learned. For this chapter’s software guide and exercises, we employ EgoNet, describing principles that can be generalized to other software packages.
