This study tests the relationship between mobility and technology among foragers, with the intent of applying findings to the archaeological record. In data analysis, mobility frequency is differentiated from mobility magnitude, and technological diversity is differentiated from technological complexity. Results suggest that mobility frequency is negatively associated with technological diversity while mobility magnitude is negatively associated with technological complexity.

This article challenges ideas of cultural progressionism through an analysis of counting systems. Cultural adaptation in both biotic and abiotic environments is examined, and results suggest that culture adapts to both the human-made environment and the physical environment. The author asserts that “interpreting divergent and convergent behaviors as due to differences and similarities of local environments” is superior to a progressionist approach to cultural change (62).

This book is concerned with explaining variation in the status of women. The author, after measuring over 50 aspects of status, first concludes that status is not a unitary concept. Therefore the author looks at 10 different domains of status. Many traditional explanations are not supported; most support is found for the influence of social complexity which generally lowers female status.

This article focuses on the economic systems of preindustrial agricultural societies. The author conducts a cluster analysis to determine four basic types of agricultural systems: herding plus, egalitarian, individualistic, and semimarketized. He argues that these types are not delineated by social structure alone; rather, they “stand as independent entities and are worthy of more intensive study” (252).

This study examines the relationship between population pressure and socioeconomic complexity in a cross-cultural sample of hunter-gatherer groups. The author suggests a causal component to the positive correlations found, arguing that increasing population pressure on food resources requires increasing storage dependence, which in turn drives sedentism and other indicators of socioeconomic complexity.

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.

The author expands on the findings of Barry, Bacon, and Child (1959), hypothesizing that type of environment is an intervening variable in the relationship between subsistence type and child training. A multiple classification analysis is used.

The author evaluates predictions from the standard model of intensification of food production and suggests it be rejected based on an analysis of 40 societies. The standard model proposes that food producers will increase their energy input until the maximum possible output is achieved, at which point output and labor productivity will fall and producers will invent or adopt new technologies. He then proposes a different model, which he terms the cultural niche construction model. The cultural niche construction model proposes that societies will minimize their energy input while maximizing their returns through continual technological adaptation and niche construction. After predictions from this second model are tested, the author suggests tentatively accepting the cultural niche construction model as a new framework to explain transitions to complex societies.

This article examines the different social risk-management strategies (SRMS) used by pastoralists to minimize their exposure to risks that may affect their livelihood. The authors identify a new type of SRMS, noninstitutionalized SRMS, to the two existing types, exchange networks and patron-client relations. A qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is used to identify factors which explain the variation in SRMS: livelihood diversification, economic differentiation, political economy, risk exposure, and key economic animal.

This book investigates sanctions for nonmarital conceptions or birth. The author conducts cross-cultural tests for hypotheses derived from a variety of theories. Results do not support one theory over another, but suggest that variables such as sociocultural complexity, family structure, descent, fraternal interest groups, sexual inequality, and child-parent relationships all affect the consequences of illegitimacy.