The Lineage Cycle in Southern and Eastern Yugoslavia

Abstract

Named local patrilines in southern and eastern Yugoslavia (vamilije, rodovi) vary in the number of individual households contained in each. Data from thirteen locations on over 12,000 lineages and 62,000 constituent households are examined to determine the source of such variation in what is here called “lineage density.” Demographic, economic, and cultural factors account for about half the variance in lineage density, but even in a model in which nominal economic and cultural factors are ideally scaled to give them maximal weight, naturally scaled factors of time depth and fertility, that is the mechanics of the cycle of lineage development, account for almost three-fourths of the explainable variance. Defects in the data and in the model are discussed, but the conclusion remains that demographic data, too seldom collected by ethnographers, are of paramount importance in understanding social process.