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 present study aims to assess the reliability of Simmons' (1937) database of 109 variables coded for 71 societies. Simmons' data was evaluated against matching societies and variables from Murdock's (1967) Ethnographic Atlas. The ultimate purpose of Rudmin's analysis is to identify the features of societies that are correlated with the private ownership of property. To do so, Simmons' reliable variables are tested against four measures of property ownership, two from Simmons and two from Murdock. Rudmin discusses results and speculates why certain clusters of societal variables correlate with private property ownership.

This study examines pairwise differences between similar cultures in order to minimize cultural variation within the SCCS and reveal possible correlates of cultural complexity. Results suggest that one measure of complexity (government above the community level) is significantly associated with several other variables.

"This article provides a set of codes that rate the starvation and famine experiences of societies in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample. The codes are used to test several theoretical generalizations regarding the underlying causes of famine." Results indicate that seasonal starvation and direct entitlements are the strongest predictors of famine.

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.

Lowes and Nunn test the theory that the transatlantic and Indian Ocean slave trades of the thirteenth to nineteenth centuries prompted a shift towards matrilineal kinship systems throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Controlling for ecological variables commonly thought to affect kinship structure (including ruggedness of terrain, suitability for agriculture, etc.), the authors find a significant correlation between the number of people enslaved from a given ethnic group, and the tendency of that group towards a matrilineal kinship system. Polygyny was also identified as a statistically significant characteristic of communities most impacted by the slave trade.

"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.

In order to explore the evolution of mutually beneficial transactions in large societies, this experimental study gathered data on the way people in societies of different subsistence types played games simulating interactions with anonymous others. The degree of fairness displayed by different players was correlated with measures of large-scale institutions, such as a market or world religion, that were present in a player’s society. Results suggest that “modern prosociality is not solely the product of an innate psychology, but also reflects norms and institutions that have emerged over the course of human history” (1480).

This article presents a theory of evolutionary development of incest regulation, namely that as societal complexity increases the incest taboo will become less extensive. The author presents empirical support for this theory, though the association is not supported among simply structured societies. The role of descent type is also discussed.

This article investigates whether trade with a world-system influences descent and residence rules in non-state societies. Data suggest that involvement in the capitalist world economy is associated with matrilineal forms of descent and residence, likely because men will be encouraged to leave their communities to participate in trade labor.