CLIQUES, GALOIS LATTICES, AND THE STRUCTURE OF HUMAN SOCIAL-GROUPS

The mathematical definition of clique has never been entirely satisfac tory when it comes to providing a procedure for defining human social groups. This paper shows how the Galois structure of containment among cliques and actors can be used to produce an intuitively appealing ch aracterization of groups-one that is consistent with ethnographic desc riptions. Two examples, using 'classical' social network data sets, ar e provided.