This study employs factor analysis to develop a settlement pattern scale of cultural complexity. Political, economic, and religious factors are identified and implications for the structure of the cultural system are discussed.

"This paper presents an exploratory attempt to solve the problem of how to infer traits for which no direct material evidence remains." The author suggests that the archeologically defined community pattern can predict several sociocultural traits. Results support this hypothesis.

The author analyzes 76 societies synchronically, positing that the evil eye belief functions as a useful heuristic and prosocial/cohesive element in weakly-institutionalized societies with significant wealth inequality; in particular, the evil eye belief is found to be more prevalent in agro-pastoral societies where material wealth is vulnerable and plays a dominant role in subsistence economy.

Textor summarizes cross-cultural findings on societies where subsistence is primarily by 'food gathering' which includes hunting, fishing, and gathering.

The article examines whether cultural groups tend to use supernatural beliefs more to explain natural phenomena or social phenomena. Analysis of ethnographic text from 114 diverse societies reveals that supernatural explanations are more common for natural phenomena, consistent with the theory that humans tend to perceive intent and agency in the natural world. However, supernatural explanations of social phenomena were more prevalent in urbanized societies with greater social complexity and anonymity. The study highlights how people use supernatural beliefs to explain their world and how this varies across small-scale and urbanized communities.

Researchers tackle the moral gods hypothesis which proposes that moral gods enabled large-scale societies to evolve. They use 414 societies spanning 10,000 years in Seshat: Global History Databank and code 51 measures of social complexity and four measures of moral gods. The findings of the present study challenge the moral gods hypothesis. In the societies studied, complex societies appear to precede moral gods rather than the inverse of moral gods preceding complex societies.

Udy divides methods of work organization into 'production determined', 'technologically determined', 'socially determined', and 'pluralistic' types, and examines their prevalence across societies with varying subsistence activities and levels of social and political stratification. Special attention is paid to processes of integration and differentiation and their role in effecting transitions between organization types.

This book is a comparative study of the ways in which work is organized among non-industrial societies in the production of material goods. Two general hypotheses guide the author's work: (1) The structure of any work organization is influenced by both techonological processes and social setting, and (2) The structure of any reward system is influenced by the characteristics of the work organization, the social setting, and the limits imposed by features of the technological processes. Several predictions are presented and all are supported.

This study investigates the relationship between cultural complexity and female premarital sexual freedom among foragers. To explain the decline of premarital sexual freedom, the authors discuss a few key trends such as the growth of social control and the decline of female status, as well as other variables such as intensification of foraging, social stratification, accumulation of wealth, political integration, and fixity of settlement. A model relating these variables is presented.

Carneiro presents work on the evolutionary sequences of cultures. He concludes that human societies have evolved in a direction towards increased complexity. He also discovers a specific sequence of cultural traits that societies have largely followed.