Hyper-edges and multidimensional centrality

Many social transactions are supra-dyadic; they either involve more than two participants (buyer, seller, broker) or they involve important aspects of the interaction's setting, tike its timing or its location. Standard network techniques do not adequately plumb these networks. Using the concept of a hypergraph [Berge, C. 1973, Graphs and Hypergraphs], this paper shows how the concept of network centrality can be adapted to supra-dyadic networks. Use of the technique is illustrated with data on attacks by inhabitants of Caribbean islands on Spanish settlements in the period 1509-1700. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.