The Relational Embeddedness of Food Distribution Networks in Nicaragua: A Multilevel Modeling Analysis of Dyadic Network Data

Jeremy Koster (U of Cincinnati, Anthropology)

​​Abstract:

Drawing on rich quantitative data, anthropologists have devoted considerable attention to food sharing networks in small-scale societies. Partly owing to the challenges of conducting fieldwork in remote settings, research on inter-household food sharing has generally focused on a standard suite of covariates, such as genetic relatedness or distance between households. Households cooperate and associate in multiple ways, however, and these relationships are reflected in an “association index” that measures the amount of time that households spend interacting with one another. Along with several other variables, including kinship, distance, reciprocity, and differences in food production, this association index predicts food transfers among indigenous Nicaraguans, which suggests that food sharing is embedded in broader social relationships that merit additional attention from anthropologists. This analysis employs a multilevel modeling formulation of the “Social Relations Model,” a statistical approach with roots in psychological research that is well suited for the analysis of dyadic network data. Possible extensions of this approach merit consideration for the types of analyses that interest anthropologists and other social scientists.

Bio:

Jeremy Koster is a human behavioral ecologist who uses ethnographic data to deduce and test hypotheses about the evolution of anatomically modern humans. Jeremy is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Cincinnati and holds a PhD in anthropology from Penn State University.