This chapter explores and tests some propositions about matrilineal societies. Supplementary to that discussion, the author also explores the problems of method associated with the use of coded data on large samples of cultures.

This article investigates residence, descent rules, and family structure. Empirical analysis suggests that they are associated with settlement patterns, particularly economic and demographic variables.

This article uses factor analysis to identify the key variables underlying the many cross-cultural associations reported by Textor (1967). Twelve factors are identified.

Authors explore the problem of data quality control, systematic error and spurious correlations possibly caused by systematic errors in global cross-cultural studies. They offer a solution (the use of control variables investigating potential sources of systematic error) and apply the technique to a cross-cultural study of the substantive correlates of societal organization and modes of marriage.

Considerable disagreement exists in regard to the origin and distribution of economic phenomena such as money, slavery, markets, exchange, and imbalanced transfers. Here the author utilizes a worldwide cross-cultural sample of 60 pre-industrial "societies" to empirically test many economic hypotheses, with a focus on distributional mechanisms and institutions.

This article analyzes the predictors of private property ownership with an aim to replicate existing correlations using data from the dissertation of Zelman (1974).

Using empirical data and statistical methodology, Gouldner and Peterson aim to identify fundamental dimensions across societies, examine the relationships among these dimensions, and evaluate their importance. Data analysis is largely based on factor analysis, and the authors discuss how statistical methods fit into functional social theory.

The author uses a world-wide sample of societies to address variation in famiy organization and the economic and social factors to which it relates.

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.

This paper examines two measures of cultural complexity: Carneiro’s (1970) scale and codes assembled at the University of Pittsburg. Analysis suggests the two measures are compatible, thus providing evidence for their validity. The authors assess the usefulness of a cultural complexity scale by testing the relationship between descent rules and cultural complexity. Significant associations suggest that cultural complexity is related to social organization and is thereby a useful measure.