Publication Date

7-27-2025

Abstract

Kinship has long shaped human societies. Yet globalization and market integration (MI) are reshaping social structures. This dissertation investigates how kinship-based networks persist, adapt, or erode amid rapid socioeconomic change. It draws on ethnographic and social network data from 229 Mosuo households in southwest China, a matrilineal society experiencing increasing MI, to examine shifts in everyday cooperation.

The first study analyzes fixed name-generator data and finds a general decline in kin support as MI increases, though with considerable variation. The second study uses count models to explore unbounded support networks, showing that kin ties remain central in reproductive contexts, while non-kin ties rise in friendship, reciprocity, and competence domains. The third study links kin-based network structure to blood pressure outcomes, suggesting that kinship partly buffers health risks associated with MI. These studies show that kinship remains vital in key domains, while non-kin ties increasingly complement social life as economies transform.

Keywords

Market; Social Network; Kinship; Cooperation; Health; Evolutionary theory

Project Sponsors

NSF

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Anthropology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Anthropology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Melissa Emery Thompson

Second Committee Member

Ian Wallace

Third Committee Member

Keith Prufer

Fourth Committee Member

Christopher McCarty

Fifth Committee Member

Siobhan Cully

Comments

This is a resubmission of revised dissertation

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