Using network visualization and the study of the dynamics of marriage choices, Network Analysis and Ethnographic Problems expands the theory of social practice to show how changes in the structure of a society's kinship network affect the development of social cohesion over time. Using the genealogical networks of a Turkish nomad clan, authors Douglas White and Ulla Johansen explore how changes in network cohesion are revealed to be indicative of key processes of social change. This approach alters in fundamental ways the anthropological concepts of social structure, organizational dynamics, social cohesion, marriage strategies, as well as the study of community politics within the dynamics of ongoing personal interaction.

"[W]hat could be the most important book in anthropology in fifty years begins with an introduction to network analysis in relation to ethnography, providing a succinct history of network thinking including very recent developments in various disciplines about network topology and dynamics.... In addition to its contribution to our understanding kinship theory in a quite new way, this book makes an outstanding contribution by reintroducing ethnographers to the network perspective.... The authors point outthat 'taking a network path to coding and analysis' in ethnography leads to the ability to understand the emergence of social structural phenomena that would otherwise remain unobserved.... Whether the reader is interested in kinship, in economics, in politics or history, this book should be considered must reading.." - International Journal of Middle East Studies

"[W]hat could be the most important book in anthropology in fifty years begins with an introduction to network analysis in relation to ethnography, providing a succinct history of network thinking including very recent developments in various disciplines about network topology and dynamics.... In addition to its contribution to our understanding kinship theory in a quite new way, this book makes an outstanding contribution by reintroducing ethnographers to the network perspective.... The authors point out that 'taking a network path to coding and analysis' in ethnography leads to the ability to understand the emergence of social structural phenomena that would otherwise remain unobserved.... Whether the reader is interested in kinship, in economics, in politics or history, this book should be considered must reading." - International Journal of Middle East Studies