Title: Genealogy and Social Cohesion: The use of genealogies in history, demography, and anthropology.

Abstract: Treating genealogical links as social networks has led to a remarkable new series of findings about social organization, structure and dynamics in human social groups and a new theory of complexity in kinship. The importance of these theoretical developments and empirical findings is illustrated for European societies, Islamic societies, South India, the Amazon, and Indonesia, and for a host of older and previously unrecognized problems in kinship studies. A simple mathematical representation provides transposable methods of analysis for extension to historical and demographic studies, Simple means of coding genealogical data and suitable software for graphic representations of kinship networks make this a generalizable approach to genealogical analysis. A controlled simulation method provides random baseline models from which statistical inferences can be drawn about the rules of behavior and decision process by which kinship networks are constructed. Endogamous cores or subgroups within populations are identified by cohesive subgroups in networks. The study of kinship structure and dynamics proves to be a fertile area of investigation that sheds light on anthropological, demographic and historical problems.

From Bertrand.Desjardins@UMontreal.ca Fri Mar 12 13:59:34 2004
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 16:34:40 -0500
From: Bertrand Desjardins 
To: drwhite@uci.edu
Subject: Invitation

Dear Dr White,

Since 1987, are held annually the "Entretiens du Centre
Jacques Cartier"  which host some 15 to 20 meetings
covering a wide spectrum of scientific, societal or cultural
themes bringing together a variety researchers, artists,
politicians, etc from Europe and North America. The 17th
Entretiens will be held in Quebec in October and one of the
meetings of which I am one of the organizers is titled "The
uses and practices of genealogy in the human, social and
biological sciences".  It will be held in Montreal on
October 7 and 8 and will involve some 20 to 25 presentations
limited to 20 minutes each to allow ample time for
discussion. The meeting is going to be held in French but
participants who prefer to use English for their
presentation or  interventions may do so. We expect to
obtain the funding necessary to pay for travel and hotel of
participants.

On the strong recommandation of François Héran, Director of
the Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED) in
Paris and  member of our organizing committee, I would like
to invite you to participate in the meeting. We are
interested in papers either dealing with the theory and
practice of using genealogies for scientific research, with
methods for use of genealogies or presenting research based
on the use of genealogies in history, demography,
anthropology or genetics. A plan for publication of some or
all the papers of the meeting will be discussed in Montreal.

We sincerely hope you will join us in Montreal. In any case,
a quick answer  would be appreciated, preferably by E-Mail.

Truly yours,
Bertrand Desjardins, for the organizing committee :

B. Desjardins (Université de Montréal), M. Tremblay and H.
Vézina (Université du Québec à Chicoutimi)
A. Bideau (CNRS, Lyon), G. Brunet (Université Lyon 2), P.
Darlu (INSERM, Paris) and F. Héran (INED, Paris)


Bertrand Desjardins Ph.D.
Chercheur agrégé
Département de démographie
Université de Montréal
C.P. 6128, succ. centre-ville
Montréal (Qc)
Canada H3C 3J7

Tél.: 514-343-7613 Téléc.: 514-343-2309
Bertrand.Desjardins@Umontreal.ca