SE300 exercises:
Evaluating quantitative relationships
a) You are in the village of Mazaltepec, in Oaxaca, Mexico. You observe the following distribution:
| Initiators of Marriages in Mazaltepec, Oaxaca, Mexico | Male Household | |
| Wealthier | Poorer | |
| Husband sought by wife | 4 | 15 |
| Wife sought by husband | 36 | 13 |
What does this suggest to you? Can you verify this using X2?
b) L. Pospisil reported the following distribution of land utilisation (in pekas) for Kapauku sweet potato planting in Indonesia (then West Irian).
| Distribution of Planting by Land Type by the Kapauku | Valley Garden Land | Other Valley Land | Mountain Land |
|---|---|---|---|
| Given by Pospisil 1957 | 15 | 10 | 150 |
| Buchler 1968 | 15 | 70 | 80 |
| D. White 1974 | 15 | 40 | 110 |
| I. Buchler, M. Fischer 1981 | 15 | 12 | 152 |
The latter figures are predictions for utilisation given by different models. Which of the models appears to be the best fit. Confirm this using the goodness of fit test using X2
c) Consider the following data from Murdock's Atlas of World Cultures on division of labour in agriculture by sex for African societies and Circum-Mediterranean societies. (Example due to Jack Goody)
| Division of Labour by Sex - Number of Societies | Sub-Saharan Africa | Circum-Mediterranean |
|---|---|---|
| Males Exclusively | 2 | 14 |
| Males Predominant | 17 | 24 |
| Equal | 33 | 14 |
| Females Predominant | 46 | 1 |
| Females Exclusively | 2 | 1 |
What can you conclude from this table. Is there any reason that you could not assume that the expected distribution on this variable 20% per value, that is why each category is not equally probable? Test both of the distributions against this expected distribution, or one constructed by yourself, describing the criteria you used to create the expected distribution. Use both X2 significance and goodness of fit as required for this question.
d) An area of controversy in the 1960's was fuelled by the difference between the preference for Father's Brother's Daughter marriage (FBD) and the actual practice for FBD marriage.
| Prevalence of FBD Marriage on Arabian Peninsula | Theoretical Max | Best Observed | Typical | Lowest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percent FBD Marriages | 64% | 60% | 30% | 10% |
What would you propose as an expected frequency for FBD marriage give the above information? Why? How do each of the examples correspond to that expected frequency?
e) Given the above questions, discuss the likely problems that social scientists might face from the usual practice of discussing norms. What is your feeling about how norms might deviate from general practice? How many of the people in the culture are likely to conform to a given norm? What is potentially valuable in norms as a description of a culture?