Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

Multivariate Analysis 671
fr
.968
Rb
.185
.334
fs
.371
.155
w
Ra .929
.468
.662
L
.435
Figure 21.2. Path analysis of effects of wealth, friendship, and family size on leadership
in Niwan Witz.
SOURCE: J. S. Thomas, ‘‘The Economic Determinants on Leadership on a Tojalabal Maya Community,’’
American Ethnologist Vol. 8, p. 1, 1981. Reproduced by permission of the American Anthropological Association.
Not for further reproduction.
Rc
enced both wealth (w) and the size of one’s friendship network (fr), and that
wealth was a factor in determining the number of one’s friends.
The path coefficients in figure 21.2 are standardized values: They show
the influence of the independent variables on the dependent variables in terms
of standard deviations. The path coefficients in figure 21.2, then, show that ‘‘a
one standard deviation increase in wealth produces a .662 standard deviation
increase in leadership; a one standard deviation increase in family size results
in a .468 standard deviation increase in leadership; and so on’’ (Thomas
1981:133). (For details about how path coefficients are determined, consult a
textbook in multivariate analysis, like Kelloway 1998.)
Four things are clear from figure 21.2: (1) Among the variables tested,
wealth is the most important cause of leadership in individuals. (2) Family
size has a moderate causal influence on wealth (making wealth a dependent,
as well as an independent variable in this system). (3) The size of a person’s
friendship network is only weakly related to either family size or wealth. (4)
The combined direct and indirect effects of family size, wealth, and friendship
network on leadership account for 56.5% (1 .435) of the variance in leadership
scores for the household heads of Niwan Witz.
Thomas concludes from this descriptive analysis that if you want to become
a leader in the Mayan village of Niwan Witz, you need wealth, and the best
way to get that is to start by having a large family.