In this book, the author conducts a cross-cultural analysis of the complexities of different types of food-getting technology. This book centers around the "technounit" which is a term the author coined meaning a discrete component of a tool, weapon, or other technology. The research in this book is chiefly concerned with measuring technological complexity by counting these technounits. Qualitative analyses and quantitative measurements are conducted for different types of food getting technology including tools, weapons, and facilities, both tended and untended. Additionally, this type of analysis is conducted for different types of exploitative networks in various climates. The author concludes that each type of technology (tools to weapons to facilities) is more complex than the last. Other findings of this analysis are as follows: hunters tend to have more complex technology than farmers, cultures in the desert and tropical climates have less complex technology than those in temperate and arctic climates, and intensive hunters tend to have more complex technology than intensive gatherers. The author also concludes with theoretical notes on human technological production and on the possibilities of this type of cross-cultural research.

An earlier study (Minturn & Lambert 1964) found a nonsignificant association between multifamily households and social permisiveness. This article re-tests that association using Barry et al.'s ratings for child socialization practices, finding that having several families in one house tends to decrease socialization pressure on children.

This chapter offers an exploratory study that examines the relationships between several culture characterstics, including child socialization practices, social structure, and food production, and mind-altering drug use in non-literate societies. All hypotheses were supported.

This paper examines relationships among mode of production, sedentarism, and population size. Generally, agricultural societies were found to be sedentary and have larger populations, while migratory societies (such as herders or hunters) had smaller population size.

This study examines organizational characteristics associated with administrative rationality, as well as how organizational development differs under varying social or cultural conditions.

"Data from 15 societies are presented in an effort to show substantial intersocietal differences of two types in susceptibility to geometric optical illusions. The results suggest the existence of different habits of perceptual inference which relate to cultural and ecological factors in the visual environment."

This study argues that different types of homosexuality must be examined separately. Authors focus on mentorship and pathic homosexual behavior and test factors that are associated with these two types of behavior.

This paper provides a linguistic study of the effect of lexical acculturation on the names given to days of the week. Findings show that loan words are used most frequently adopted for weekend days, followed by the days of the week that are closest to the weekends, and least frequently adopted for the days in the middle of the seven-day cycle.

This article investigates material and social predictors of belief in a high god. The author introduces a new variable, the inertness of subsistence raw materials, to be compared with Swanson’s (1960) variable representing the number of sovereign groups. Both variables were significant predictors of belief in high gods. Relevant theory is discussed.

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.