This book is a comprehensive analysis of many aspects of social structure including family, clan, community, kinship terminology, social organization, regulation of sex, incest taboos, and sexual choice.

This study examines the relationship between mother absence in child rearing and kinship terminology, particularly the differentiation of daughters and nieces. A significant association is found and the author offers theories of causality in both directions.

This article examines variation in kinship terminology. The authors develop a new typology of kinds of kinship terminologies, and they propose that terminologies will distinguish siblings of the same and opposite gender when there is a cultural emphasis on cross-sex relations. Empirical analysis supports that a prolonged post-partum sex taboo (rather than sibling avoidance) predicts the presence of a primary cross-parallel component in sibling terminology.

This study examines the relationship between adolescent suicide and attitudes toward premarital sexual behavior. Several hypotheses were tested, but no associations reached statistical significance.

This study investigates the relationship between Crow kinship terminology and avunculocality. Results indicate that if matrilateral cross-cousin marriage is associated with Crow kinship systems, then societies that are avunculocal are more likely have Crow systems.

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

This study re-examines the hypothesis of Sapir (1916) regarding the relationship between levirate and sororate and kinship terminology. The author critiques Murdock’s (1947) work on this topic and performs his own analysis for four hypotheses. Results suggest that “the levirate and sororate are significantly correlated to the occurrence of bifurcate merging terminology and step-bifurcate collateral terminology” (352). Exceptions to this finding are also discussed.

This paper examines diverging devolution—the transmission of property to both males and females—and its predictors and consequences. Particular attention is paid to kinship terminology and control of women’s marriage. Multiple hypotheses are supported.

This paper examines the distribution and diffusion of the seven patterns of sibling classifaction given by the author. The author then studies the association between descent and sibling terminology.