The author presents an approach to understanding initiation ceremonies that differs from the approach of Whiting (1962). Cohen looks at the association between legal and kinship systems and childrens' experiences growing up. Several significant association are found between these variables.

This study investigates political organization and the punishment of nonmarital sex. The author suggests that "the rules governing each type of nonmarital relationship are outgrowths of different relationships between controlling political bodies and local boundary systems."

This article examines the relationship between early food gratification, emotional predispositions to share food with others, and community systems. Results suggest that gratification of food needs varies with community type, and young children who receive food whenever they cry or ask are more likely to share food in adulthood. In broader terms, the need to receive from others is gratified differently under different sociological conditions, and these differences influence individuals toward divergent socially patterned behaviors in adulthood.

The author postulates that there are different types of friendship that characterize different societies--"inalienable friendship," "close friendship," "casual friendship," and "expedient friendship." These types are postulated to be characteristic of different types of community systems (described on pages 314-318 of this volume).

The theoretical concern of this work is with different types of liability that societies emphasize in their legal systems and how that plays out in understanding the transition from childhood to adolescence as well as variation in incest taboos.