Malcolm M Dow
Biographic Data
| ID | 3597196 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Malcolm M Dow |
| GIVEN NAMES | Malcolm M |
| FAMILY NAME | Dow |
| SIGNATURE | DOW M M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Northwestern University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 364 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1981 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Cultural Trait Transmission and Missing Data as Sources of Bias in Cross-Cultural Survey Research: Explanations of Polygyny Re-examined
Ember, Ember, and Low (2007) recently reported male mortality in warfare and environmental pathogen stress as statistically significant predictors of nonsororal polygyny. Two sources of bias can be identified in their data analysis: 1) omitted variable bias due to not including a variable for cultural trait transmission, that is, Galton's Problem; and 2) bias caused by extensive deletion of cases when the basic assumption required by listwise del…
Multiple Imputation of Missing Data in Cross-Cultural Samples
Listwise deletion of cases with missing data prior to statistical analysis, the approach overwhelmingly used by cross-cultural survey researchers, requires the assumption that the missing data are missing completely at random. This assumption is not often likely to hold for cross-cultural sample data, and when it fails statistical analysis based only on complete-case subsamples introduces the possibility of biased estimates and standard errors. O…
How to Deal with Missing Data and Galton's Problem in Cross-Cultural Survey Research: A Primer for R
Multiple imputation (MI) has become the preferred method for dealing with missing data in survey research. MI involves three steps: creating m multiply imputed complete datasets; estimating models on each of the m datasets using any standard statistical procedure; combining the resulting multiple estimates of each statistic of interest. This paper provides R programs for MI, and offers some advice for employing MI with data drawn from the Standar…
Global, Regional, and Local Network Autocorrelation in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample
There is now considerable evidence in the cross-cultural literature that cultural networks need not be based strictly on spatial propinquity but may develop along other dimensions such as common language, religion, and levels of cultural complexity. In this article, the authors generate networks based on sociocultural distance metrics for these three network dimensions in addition to the usual geographical distance measure and a measure of overal…
Network Autocorrelation Regression With Binary and Ordinal Dependent Variables: Galton's Problem
Dow and Eff recently reported high levels of network autocorrelation for over eleven hundred and fifty variables coded for the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS) with respect to five distinct measures of network proximity: distance, language, cultural complexity, religion, and ecological niche. Most of the variables were discrete, either binary or ordinal, as are the vast majority of variables in all cross-cultural samples. A large percentage …
Galton's Problem as Multiple Network Autocorrelation Effects: Cultural Trait Transmission and Ecological Constraint
Empirical evidence that cultural traits are often nonrandomly distributed because of the individual or combined effects of common history, diffusion, borrowing, and/or other types of cultural transmission processes has been accumulating for decades. Because many cultural traits have recently been shown to be influenced by more than one transmission process, it has become a methodological priority in comparative research to develop statistical met…
Regions Based on Social Structure
Boas argued that anthropologists should make historical comparisons within well-defined regional contexts. A century later, we have many improvements in the statistical methodologies for comparative research, yet most of our regional constructs remain without a valid empirical basis. We present a new method for developing and testing regions. The method takes into account older anthropological concerns with relationships between culture history a…
Primate Social Networks
Saving the Theory: On Chi-Square Tests With Cross-Cultural Survey Data
Using data from three well-known cross-cultural survey data sets that differ in size and geographical scope, this article examines the effects of spatial and/or cultural clustering of societies on the usual chi-square test of independence. Sample design effects for individ ual variables and for two-way contingency tables from all three data sets were found to be generally larger than unity, often consid erably so, suggesting that the associated c…
Statistical Inference in Comparative Research: New Directions
Variance in intrinsic rates of growth among free‐ranging rhesus monkey groups
Differential rates of intrinsic growth for the population of Macaca mulatta on Cayo Santiago partitioned by social group and dominance rank of genealogies indicate that the potential for increase is not uniformly distributed throughout the population. In the period from 1973 to 1974, high‐ranking genealogies were growing at a faster rate than low‐ranking genealogies. Large differences in r among the social groups indicate the possible existence o…
Assignment methods for the analysis of network subgroup interactions
Network interdependence of sample units in contingency tables
Analytical, empirical, and simulation evidence suggest that chi‐square and likelihood‐ratio tests reject at rates substantially lower than the nominal rate whenever the data have been generated using a sampling scheme that does not ensure independence of sample units. A number of deflation factors have been proposed as adjustments to these test statistics in order to raise rejection rates. Most, however, appear to overadjust and result in very co…
Preface: Biological networks symposium
Group selection models with population substructure based on social interaction networks
Most models of evolution by group selection assume that groups have discrete boundaries with homogeneous levels of interaction within groups and no interaction between groups. While this assumption is analytically useful, it is not an accurate description of groups in nature. We use a generalization of D.S. Wilson's ( Am. Nat. 111 :157–185, 1977; The Natural Selection of Populations and Communities. Reading, Mass.: Benjamin/Cummings, 1980) concep…
General/Theoretical Anthropology: Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists. Anselm L. Strauss
Partial correlation of distance matrices in studies of population structure
Anthropological studies of human population structure commonly compare various monogenic and polygenic (metric) distance matrices to distance matrices obtained from measures of geographical dispersion, linguistic differences, and migration patterns in an attempt to infer something about the effects of evolutionary factors (drift and differential selection, in particular). It is, though, commonly recognized that geography, language, and migration …
Subsample Replication in Cross-Cultural Surveys
A Phylogenetic Autocorrelation Analysis of Sexual Dimorphism in Primates
Model Selection Procedures for Network Autocorrelated Disturbances Models
Strategies for model selection within the regression framework typically involve choices among several sometimes competing criteria. In this article, the interrelated criteria of goodness-of-fit and parameter invariance are explored with respect to a class of maximum likelihood network autocorrelation models. A GLS measure of generalized goodness-of-fit, R2G, is proposed for these models based on the equivalence of ML and GLS in the exponential f…
Nonparametric inference procedures for multistate life table analysis
Recent generalizations of the classical single state life table procedures to the multistate case provide the means to analyze simultaneously the mobility and mortality experience of one or more cohorts. Within this multidimensional demographic literature, however, little attention has been paid thus far to problems of statistical inference. In this paper, an inferential and hypothesis testing strategy is proposed based on fairly general nonpara‐…
Comparison of distance matrices in studies of population structure and genetic microdifferentiation: Quadratic assignment
Questions concerning the relative effects of various evolutionary forces in molding the genetic variability exhibited by groups of human populations have typically been investigated by comparing a variety of genetic and cultural/historical “distance” matrices. A major methodological difficulty has been the lack of formal testing procedures with which to assess the degree of confirmation or disconfirmation of an estimated measure of relationship b…
An autocorrelation analysis of genetic variation due to lineal fission in social groups of rhesus macaques
Empirical analyses and models of the lineal effects of fission indicate that considerable genetic differentiation may occur at the time of group formation, thus confusing the usual positive relationship between historical affiliation and genetic differentiation. We analyze the effects of fission pattern on variation in highly heritable morphological traits among eight social groups on Cayo Santiago. The analysis is performed using general network…
Agricultural Intensification and Craft Specialization: A Nonrecursive Model
The purpose of this paper is to examine four distinct theoretical positions which offer some implicit or explicit causal account of the empirically observed positive association between agricultural intensity and the division of labor into non? agricultural craft specialties. This empirical relationship has long been noted and discussed. In cross-cultural studies, for example, Hobhouse, Wheeler, and Ginsberg (1914) used number of craft specialtie…
Galton's Problem as network autocorrelation
Classical statistical inference procedures usually assume the independence of sample units. However, the assumption of independence is often unrealistic in cross-cultural research because societies in neighboring or historically related regions tend to be duplicates of one another across a wide variety of traits that are spread by historical fission, diffusion, or migration of peoples. A recent generalization of the usual regression model explici…
Sexual Division of Labor in African Agriculture: A Network Autocorrelation Analysis
A model of causes and consequences of sexual division of labor in agriculture is tested using a sample of African societies. Crop type and the presence or absence of slavery are shown to be effective predictors of the degree of female contribution to agricultural subsistence, and the degree of polygyny is shown to be affected by female agricultural contribution and the form of residence. Autocorrelation effects are found and are shown to be a con…
Regions Based on Social Structure
Boas argued that anthropologists should make historical comparisons within well-defined regional contexts. A century later, we have many improvements in the statistical methodologies for comparative research, yet most of our regional constructs remain without a valid empirical basis. We present a new method for developing and testing regions. The method takes into account older anthropological concerns with relationships between culture history a…
Galton's Problem as network autocorrelation
Classical statistical inference procedures usually assume the independence of sample units. However, the assumption of independence is often unrealistic in cross-cultural research because societies in neighboring or historically related regions tend to be duplicates of one another across a wide variety of traits that are spread by historical fission, diffusion, or migration of peoples. A recent generalization of the usual regression model explici…
Comparison of distance matrices in studies of population structure and genetic microdifferentiation: Quadratic assignment
Questions concerning the relative effects of various evolutionary forces in molding the genetic variability exhibited by groups of human populations have typically been investigated by comparing a variety of genetic and cultural/historical “distance” matrices. A major methodological difficulty has been the lack of formal testing procedures with which to assess the degree of confirmation or disconfirmation of an estimated measure of relationship b…
Partial correlation of distance matrices in studies of population structure
Anthropological studies of human population structure commonly compare various monogenic and polygenic (metric) distance matrices to distance matrices obtained from measures of geographical dispersion, linguistic differences, and migration patterns in an attempt to infer something about the effects of evolutionary factors (drift and differential selection, in particular). It is, though, commonly recognized that geography, language, and migration …
A Biparametric Approach to Network Autocorrelation: Galton's Problem
In anthropology, 'Galton's Problem' is generally taken to refer to the interdependence of cases in a cross-cultural sample due to various processes of cultural diffusion. Previous attempts to deal with this problem have usually assumed that these types of interdependencies can be characterized adequately in terms of spatial proximity and/or common linguistic history. In regression analysis using such interdependent data, autocorrelation among the…
Galton's Problem as Multiple Network Autocorrelation Effects: Cultural Trait Transmission and Ecological Constraint
Empirical evidence that cultural traits are often nonrandomly distributed because of the individual or combined effects of common history, diffusion, borrowing, and/or other types of cultural transmission processes has been accumulating for decades. Because many cultural traits have recently been shown to be influenced by more than one transmission process, it has become a methodological priority in comparative research to develop statistical met…
Multivariate Modeling with Interdependent Network Data
In the recent comparative literature the problem of simultaneously modeling func tional and diffusional effects is being penetrated from two directions. One approach emphasizes the similar problem which arises in regression-based time series analysis. A second approach focuses on the difficulties of constructing more realistic formal representations of sample unit interdependencies. Both approaches have yielded important and complementary, but di…
Global, Regional, and Local Network Autocorrelation in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample
There is now considerable evidence in the cross-cultural literature that cultural networks need not be based strictly on spatial propinquity but may develop along other dimensions such as common language, religion, and levels of cultural complexity. In this article, the authors generate networks based on sociocultural distance metrics for these three network dimensions in addition to the usual geographical distance measure and a measure of overal…
A Phylogenetic Autocorrelation Analysis of Sexual Dimorphism in Primates
Agricultural Intensification and Craft Specialization: A Nonrecursive Model
The purpose of this paper is to examine four distinct theoretical positions which offer some implicit or explicit causal account of the empirically observed positive association between agricultural intensity and the division of labor into non? agricultural craft specialties. This empirical relationship has long been noted and discussed. In cross-cultural studies, for example, Hobhouse, Wheeler, and Ginsberg (1914) used number of craft specialtie…
Statistical Inference in Comparative Research: New Directions
Subsample Replication in Cross-Cultural Surveys
How to Deal with Missing Data and Galton's Problem in Cross-Cultural Survey Research: A Primer for R
Multiple imputation (MI) has become the preferred method for dealing with missing data in survey research. MI involves three steps: creating m multiply imputed complete datasets; estimating models on each of the m datasets using any standard statistical procedure; combining the resulting multiple estimates of each statistic of interest. This paper provides R programs for MI, and offers some advice for employing MI with data drawn from the Standar…
Saving the Theory: On Chi-Square Tests With Cross-Cultural Survey Data
Using data from three well-known cross-cultural survey data sets that differ in size and geographical scope, this article examines the effects of spatial and/or cultural clustering of societies on the usual chi-square test of independence. Sample design effects for individ ual variables and for two-way contingency tables from all three data sets were found to be generally larger than unity, often consid erably so, suggesting that the associated c…
An autocorrelation analysis of genetic variation due to lineal fission in social groups of rhesus macaques
Empirical analyses and models of the lineal effects of fission indicate that considerable genetic differentiation may occur at the time of group formation, thus confusing the usual positive relationship between historical affiliation and genetic differentiation. We analyze the effects of fission pattern on variation in highly heritable morphological traits among eight social groups on Cayo Santiago. The analysis is performed using general network…
Multiple Imputation of Missing Data in Cross-Cultural Samples
Listwise deletion of cases with missing data prior to statistical analysis, the approach overwhelmingly used by cross-cultural survey researchers, requires the assumption that the missing data are missing completely at random. This assumption is not often likely to hold for cross-cultural sample data, and when it fails statistical analysis based only on complete-case subsamples introduces the possibility of biased estimates and standard errors. O…
Network interdependence of sample units in contingency tables
Analytical, empirical, and simulation evidence suggest that chi‐square and likelihood‐ratio tests reject at rates substantially lower than the nominal rate whenever the data have been generated using a sampling scheme that does not ensure independence of sample units. A number of deflation factors have been proposed as adjustments to these test statistics in order to raise rejection rates. Most, however, appear to overadjust and result in very co…
Network Autocorrelation Regression With Binary and Ordinal Dependent Variables: Galton's Problem
Dow and Eff recently reported high levels of network autocorrelation for over eleven hundred and fifty variables coded for the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS) with respect to five distinct measures of network proximity: distance, language, cultural complexity, religion, and ecological niche. Most of the variables were discrete, either binary or ordinal, as are the vast majority of variables in all cross-cultural samples. A large percentage …
Nonparametric inference procedures for multistate life table analysis
Recent generalizations of the classical single state life table procedures to the multistate case provide the means to analyze simultaneously the mobility and mortality experience of one or more cohorts. Within this multidimensional demographic literature, however, little attention has been paid thus far to problems of statistical inference. In this paper, an inferential and hypothesis testing strategy is proposed based on fairly general nonpara‐…
Group selection models with population substructure based on social interaction networks
Most models of evolution by group selection assume that groups have discrete boundaries with homogeneous levels of interaction within groups and no interaction between groups. While this assumption is analytically useful, it is not an accurate description of groups in nature. We use a generalization of D.S. Wilson's ( Am. Nat. 111 :157–185, 1977; The Natural Selection of Populations and Communities. Reading, Mass.: Benjamin/Cummings, 1980) concep…
Model Selection Procedures for Network Autocorrelated Disturbances Models
Strategies for model selection within the regression framework typically involve choices among several sometimes competing criteria. In this article, the interrelated criteria of goodness-of-fit and parameter invariance are explored with respect to a class of maximum likelihood network autocorrelation models. A GLS measure of generalized goodness-of-fit, R2G, is proposed for these models based on the equivalence of ML and GLS in the exponential f…
Variance in intrinsic rates of growth among free‐ranging rhesus monkey groups
Differential rates of intrinsic growth for the population of Macaca mulatta on Cayo Santiago partitioned by social group and dominance rank of genealogies indicate that the potential for increase is not uniformly distributed throughout the population. In the period from 1973 to 1974, high‐ranking genealogies were growing at a faster rate than low‐ranking genealogies. Large differences in r among the social groups indicate the possible existence o…
Sexual Division of Labor in African Agriculture: A Network Autocorrelation Analysis
A model of causes and consequences of sexual division of labor in agriculture is tested using a sample of African societies. Crop type and the presence or absence of slavery are shown to be effective predictors of the degree of female contribution to agricultural subsistence, and the degree of polygyny is shown to be affected by female agricultural contribution and the form of residence. Autocorrelation effects are found and are shown to be a con…
Network autocorrelation: A simulation study of a foundational problem in regression and survey research
Multivariate Modeling with Interdependent Network Data
In the recent comparative literature the problem of simultaneously modeling func tional and diffusional effects is being penetrated from two directions. One approach emphasizes the similar problem which arises in regression-based time series analysis. A second approach focuses on the difficulties of constructing more realistic formal representations of sample unit interdependencies. Both approaches have yielded important and complementary, but di…
Galton's Problem as network autocorrelation
Classical statistical inference procedures usually assume the independence of sample units. However, the assumption of independence is often unrealistic in cross-cultural research because societies in neighboring or historically related regions tend to be duplicates of one another across a wide variety of traits that are spread by historical fission, diffusion, or migration of peoples. A recent generalization of the usual regression model explici…
A Biparametric Approach to Network Autocorrelation: Galton's Problem
In anthropology, 'Galton's Problem' is generally taken to refer to the interdependence of cases in a cross-cultural sample due to various processes of cultural diffusion. Previous attempts to deal with this problem have usually assumed that these types of interdependencies can be characterized adequately in terms of spatial proximity and/or common linguistic history. In regression analysis using such interdependent data, autocorrelation among the…
Nonparametric inference procedures for multistate life table analysis
Recent generalizations of the classical single state life table procedures to the multistate case provide the means to analyze simultaneously the mobility and mortality experience of one or more cohorts. Within this multidimensional demographic literature, however, little attention has been paid thus far to problems of statistical inference. In this paper, an inferential and hypothesis testing strategy is proposed based on fairly general nonpara‐…
Comparison of distance matrices in studies of population structure and genetic microdifferentiation: Quadratic assignment
Questions concerning the relative effects of various evolutionary forces in molding the genetic variability exhibited by groups of human populations have typically been investigated by comparing a variety of genetic and cultural/historical “distance” matrices. A major methodological difficulty has been the lack of formal testing procedures with which to assess the degree of confirmation or disconfirmation of an estimated measure of relationship b…
An autocorrelation analysis of genetic variation due to lineal fission in social groups of rhesus macaques
Empirical analyses and models of the lineal effects of fission indicate that considerable genetic differentiation may occur at the time of group formation, thus confusing the usual positive relationship between historical affiliation and genetic differentiation. We analyze the effects of fission pattern on variation in highly heritable morphological traits among eight social groups on Cayo Santiago. The analysis is performed using general network…
Agricultural Intensification and Craft Specialization: A Nonrecursive Model
The purpose of this paper is to examine four distinct theoretical positions which offer some implicit or explicit causal account of the empirically observed positive association between agricultural intensity and the division of labor into non? agricultural craft specialties. This empirical relationship has long been noted and discussed. In cross-cultural studies, for example, Hobhouse, Wheeler, and Ginsberg (1914) used number of craft specialtie…
A Phylogenetic Autocorrelation Analysis of Sexual Dimorphism in Primates
Model Selection Procedures for Network Autocorrelated Disturbances Models
Strategies for model selection within the regression framework typically involve choices among several sometimes competing criteria. In this article, the interrelated criteria of goodness-of-fit and parameter invariance are explored with respect to a class of maximum likelihood network autocorrelation models. A GLS measure of generalized goodness-of-fit, R2G, is proposed for these models based on the equivalence of ML and GLS in the exponential f…
Partial correlation of distance matrices in studies of population structure
Anthropological studies of human population structure commonly compare various monogenic and polygenic (metric) distance matrices to distance matrices obtained from measures of geographical dispersion, linguistic differences, and migration patterns in an attempt to infer something about the effects of evolutionary factors (drift and differential selection, in particular). It is, though, commonly recognized that geography, language, and migration …
Subsample Replication in Cross-Cultural Surveys
Preface: Biological networks symposium
Group selection models with population substructure based on social interaction networks
Most models of evolution by group selection assume that groups have discrete boundaries with homogeneous levels of interaction within groups and no interaction between groups. While this assumption is analytically useful, it is not an accurate description of groups in nature. We use a generalization of D.S. Wilson's ( Am. Nat. 111 :157–185, 1977; The Natural Selection of Populations and Communities. Reading, Mass.: Benjamin/Cummings, 1980) concep…
General/Theoretical Anthropology: Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists. Anselm L. Strauss
Assignment methods for the analysis of network subgroup interactions
Network interdependence of sample units in contingency tables
Analytical, empirical, and simulation evidence suggest that chi‐square and likelihood‐ratio tests reject at rates substantially lower than the nominal rate whenever the data have been generated using a sampling scheme that does not ensure independence of sample units. A number of deflation factors have been proposed as adjustments to these test statistics in order to raise rejection rates. Most, however, appear to overadjust and result in very co…
Statistical Inference in Comparative Research: New Directions
Variance in intrinsic rates of growth among free‐ranging rhesus monkey groups
Differential rates of intrinsic growth for the population of Macaca mulatta on Cayo Santiago partitioned by social group and dominance rank of genealogies indicate that the potential for increase is not uniformly distributed throughout the population. In the period from 1973 to 1974, high‐ranking genealogies were growing at a faster rate than low‐ranking genealogies. Large differences in r among the social groups indicate the possible existence o…
Saving the Theory: On Chi-Square Tests With Cross-Cultural Survey Data
Using data from three well-known cross-cultural survey data sets that differ in size and geographical scope, this article examines the effects of spatial and/or cultural clustering of societies on the usual chi-square test of independence. Sample design effects for individ ual variables and for two-way contingency tables from all three data sets were found to be generally larger than unity, often consid erably so, suggesting that the associated c…
Primate Social Networks
Regions Based on Social Structure
Boas argued that anthropologists should make historical comparisons within well-defined regional contexts. A century later, we have many improvements in the statistical methodologies for comparative research, yet most of our regional constructs remain without a valid empirical basis. We present a new method for developing and testing regions. The method takes into account older anthropological concerns with relationships between culture history a…
Galton's Problem as Multiple Network Autocorrelation Effects: Cultural Trait Transmission and Ecological Constraint
Empirical evidence that cultural traits are often nonrandomly distributed because of the individual or combined effects of common history, diffusion, borrowing, and/or other types of cultural transmission processes has been accumulating for decades. Because many cultural traits have recently been shown to be influenced by more than one transmission process, it has become a methodological priority in comparative research to develop statistical met…
Global, Regional, and Local Network Autocorrelation in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample
There is now considerable evidence in the cross-cultural literature that cultural networks need not be based strictly on spatial propinquity but may develop along other dimensions such as common language, religion, and levels of cultural complexity. In this article, the authors generate networks based on sociocultural distance metrics for these three network dimensions in addition to the usual geographical distance measure and a measure of overal…
Mathematics (21 works) · Statistics (20 works) · Computer Science (17 works) · Econometrics (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Spatial and Panel Data Analysis (11 works) · Autocorrelation (8 works) · Biology (8 works) · Artificial Intelligence (7 works) · Population (7 works)