This study focuses on the development of unilineal descent, reviewing previous theories and testing additional factors to explain the relationship between unilineal descent and unilocal residence. Results suggest four key factors leading to a low association between these two variables: insufficient alternatives to unilocal residence rule, instability of communal composition, absence of sedentary settlement pattern, and small average community size. A model linking all variables from the paper is presented.

This paper investigates the relationship between marital residence and warfare. The author evaluates two theories proposing opposite causalities: one, that internal warfarecauses patrilocality; the other, that residence comes first and influences type of warfare. The author presents a new model emphasizing the role of population size in determining type of warfare, which in turn affects marital residence. However, the role of migration in determining marital residence is also considered.

Author proposes and presents evidence in support of the theory that most societies practice virilocal or patrilocal residence (this is the "normal" pattern" and that matrilocal residence is adopted when societies migrate to an already populated area.

The article investigates whether more socially restrictive societies provide more outlets for aggression. These authors operationalized restrictiveness with the presence of sorcery and unilineal kinship structure; the two outlets for aggression examined were occurrence of warfare and games of physical skill. Results suggest an association between these variables, though unilineal kinship structure was the better predictor of the existence of warfare.

This article suggests a theory of the relationship between rules of descent and polity structure. The author suggests that “polity structure in stateless societies is a consequence of the presence or absence of cohesive factions based on lineage or family” (301). Two types of kinship ties produce different polity structures: cross-cutting ties, common in matrilineal societies, lead to political consensus; overlapping ties, common in patrilineal societies, lead to factionalism. Empirical tests support this theory.

This article uses signaling theory and tests for a relationship between costly male rites and frequency of warfare.

This book examines the difference between warless and warlike societies and attempts to determine the point at which a society becomes warlike. The author suggests that differences between warless and warlike societies are mostly organizational and hypothesizes that "unsegmented" societies, or societies that have a weaker sense of group identity and cohesion, will be more likely to be warless than "segmented" societies. Several tests are presented. Results generally support the hypothesis.

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 explores predictors of variation in two dimensions of marital residence patterns among hunter-gatherers: 1) the tendency toward patrilocality versus matrilocality and 2) the tendency toward unilocality versus bilocality.

This study tests several hypothesis about predictors of male or female gods. Results suggest a relationship between relative emphasis on female deities and rule of descent.