INTRODUCTION

Social networks in Aphrodito look much different from those of Oxyrhynchos. Aphrodito villagers acquired new property from, established lease agreements with and married people already familiar to them through previous social and economic connections. These were arrangements between social equals, men who held the same status or belonged to the same guild. The Aphrodito evidence suggests a relatively even distribution of horizontal social ties throughout the village's social network. This is in sharp contrast to the hierarchical, vertical ties found in the Oxyrhynchite evidence. In Chapter 1, I argued that missing evidence from hypothetical Oxyrhynchite village archives would not overturn the impressions formed about the nome's social networks based on the view from the city itself. Here, I make a parallel argument: Aphrodito's village-level social structures were independent of larger nome-wide structures in the Antaiopolite. Discovery of new papyri from Antaiopolis would still leave us with an Aphrodito rich in multiplex ties between social equals.

What specific patterns in Aphrodito's social interactions are documented in the papyrological record? How did prominent figures in Aphrodito conduct their business? To whom did they turn for assistance and advice? What social connections were behind their land acquisitions and other economic activities? Questions like these are the stock in trade of the sociologists and anthropologists who developed social network analysis. Time and again, our study of Aphrodito answers these questions by highlighting strong, multiplex social ties.