Researchers investigated the variation of land tenure systems across forager societies using the economic defensibility model. The study attempted to explain the variation in tenure systems across 30 hunter-gatherer societies. Using data on defense and sharing of resources among groups, and indicators of resource density, resource predictability, and competition for resources, the researchers were unable to explain the variation. This study highlights the vast range of diversity and complexity of foragers subsistence strategies, and proposes that it may be more telling to conceptualize tenure systems among hunter-gatherer societies as assemblages of multiple property regimes. While there was no overall evidence that environmental variables of resource density and predictability explain variation in tenure systems, researchers did find that increasing population density, and greater competition for resources leads to greater territoriality.

The second and third parts of this book classify the economic systems of foraging and agricultural societies in the SCCS based on correlations between their institutions of property an distribution. These economic types are then examined for relationships with other social, political, demographic, and environmental factors in order to draw tentative conclusions regarding the origins of the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. The fourth part of the book uses cross-national data to examine similar associations in industrial/service economies, and is not included here.

The article discusses the role of land ownership in natural resource management and social-ecological resilience, and explores the factors that determine ownership norms in human societies. The study tests long-standing theories from ecology, economics, and anthropology regarding the potential drivers of land ownership, including resource defensibility, subsistence strategies, population pressure, political complexity, and cultural transmission mechanisms. Using cultural and environmental data from 102 societies, the study found an increased probability of land ownership in mountainous environments and societies with higher population densities. The study also found support for the idea that neighboring societies might influence land ownership. However, there was less support for variables associated with subsistence strategies and political complexity.

The present study aims to evaluate correlations of private property from two of Murdock's datasets, one of 147 societies (1981) and the other of 312 societies (1967). Altogether the author tested 146 variables coded by Murdock against variables regarding the ownership of land and of movables drawn from Murdock (1967), Simmons (1937), and Swanson (1960). In total, there were 51 statistically significant correlations between private property ownership and other variables. Additionally, the author summarizes the results from this article and the two that preceded it stating that throughout all of the correlations he ran, the practice of agriculture, the use of cereal grains, and the presence of castes and classes were the only variables that predicted private property in all of the datasets that were utilized.

The present study builds upon Rudmin's 1992a publication by using a second data base to replicate and evaluate analyses on the cross-cultural correlates of private property ownership. Rudmin seeks to assess the reliability of Swanson's (1966) data base of 39 variables coded on 50 cultures. To do so, Swanson's data was evaluated against matching societies and variables from Murdock's (1967) Ethnographic Atlas. Swanson's reliable variables are tested against three measures of property ownership, one from Swanson and two from Murdock. Rudmin discusses results and speculates why certain clusters of societal variables correlate with private property ownership.

This article examines variation in childrens' socialization anxiety across societies of different subsistence types.

The researchers use phylogenetic methods to map out the evolutionary trajectories of land tenure norms across 97 Austronesian societies. The analysis suggests the relevance of vertical transmission in patterning land tenure norms, rather than horizontal transmission. It also strongly supports a model along a N(none)-I(individual)-G(group)-K(kin) pathway.

This study examines land ownership and territoriality among hunter-gatherers in relation to resource density and predictability and defense technology. A model is presented and briefly tested on a cross-cultural sample of 14 hunter-gatherer societies. Results suggest that societies in more resource-rich areas will be more territorial than societies in less resource-rich areas.

Using multiple logistic regression, the researchers compare the relative strength of predictors of land ownership across 102 societies. The analysis finds significant predictive power in factors such as neighbors' property system, population density, and geography.

In this article, the author departs from previous research on common vs. private property ownership predictors to understand why ocean property rights often play out differently than land. As opposed to the dominant hypothesis that common property regimes will change to private property when resources are scarce and population increases, the author proposes economic defendability (the relationship between the value of the property and the cost to defend it) as a better predictor of property regime type.