Documents
- The origin of the state: land productivity or appropriability?Mayshar, Joram - Journal of Political Economy, 2022 - 4 Hypotheses
The authors evaluated an alternative theory to the traditional productivity theory. They posit that food surplus did not precede the emergence of hierarchy, rather, the productivity advantage of cereal cultivation over tubers and roots as the catalyst for state societies. Their theory found support with a sample of societies from the present-day, Classical Antiquity, Neolithic period and pre/post Columbian Exchange. The results suggest social complexity emerged with cereal cultivation, rather than agriculture alone.
Related Documents Cite More By Author - Residential variation among hunter-gatherersEmber, Carol R. - Behavior Science Research, 1975 - 7 Hypotheses
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.
Related Documents Cite More By Author - Our better nature: Does resource stress predict beyond-household sharingEmber, Carol R. - Evolution and Human Behavior, 2018 - 3 Hypotheses
The present research investigates food sharing and labor sharing practices of 98 nonindustrial societies. The aims are to: 1) document the frequency and scope of sharing, and 2) test the theory that greater sharing is adaptive in societies subject to more resource stress (including natural hazards).
Related Documents Cite More By Author - Disease and diversity in long-term economic developmentBirchenall, Javier A. - World Development, 2023 - 2 Hypotheses
This article uses the Standard Cross-Cultural Samples to test the relationship between disease and economic growth among sub-Saharan African societies. The authors suggest that a higher disease prevalence limits social integration and economic development since pre-colonial times. The variable measuring economic growth is the complexity of large or impressive structures. The hypotheses are that 1) pathogen stress is negatively correlated to the presence of complex buildings, and 2) pathogen stress is positively correlated to increased ethnic diversity. The results support both hypotheses, and there are additional results, like 1) the negative correlation between pathogen stress and current income per capita and 2) the negative correlation between the increased ethnic diversity and current income per capita. Overall, this article shows the robust relationship between disease and economic development.
Related Documents Cite More By Author - Inculcated traits and game-type combinations: a cross-cultural viewRoberts, John M. - The Humanistic and Mental Health Aspects of Sports, Exercise and Recreation, 1976 - 1 Hypotheses
This study relates the type of games present in a society to the level of cultural complexity. Authors use a "game-type combination scale" that categorizes societies as having: 1) games of physical skill only; 2) games of physical skill and games of chance; and 3) games of physical skill, games of chance, and games of strategy. Results show a relationship between the game-type combination scale and indicators of cultural complexity.
Related Documents Cite More By Author - Modernization as changes in cultural complexity: new cross-cultural measurementsDivale, William Tulio - Cross-Cultural Research, 2001 - 2 Hypotheses
This article considers the consequences of modernization. Factor analysis is used to identify four stages of modernization: 1) changes in education, government, and trade; 2) changes in health, technology, and transportation; 3) changes in family, religion, and toilet; and 4) changes in behavior. The authors then consider five trends they expect to be associated with modernization and test whether they develop over the course of the four stages. Results indicate that these 5 trends—increased cultural complexity, female status, pacification, suicide, and social stress—are associated with only the first and fourth stages.
Related Documents Cite More By Author - Altered states of consciousness within a general evolutionary perspective: a holocultural analysisBourguignon, Erika - Cross-Cultural Research, 1977 - 1 Hypotheses
This article investigates a cultural patterning of altered states of consciousness. The authors use an ordinal variable for a society's trance type; its four levels are 1) trance, 2) trance and possession trance, 3) possession trance, and 4) neither type. Results suggest that trance type is associated with measures of societal complexity and subsistence economy. Regional differences and the effects of diffusion are also examined.
Related Documents Cite More By Author - Societal complexity or production techniques: another look at udy's data on the structure of work organizationsNorr, James L. - American Journal of Sociology, 1977 - 3 Hypotheses
This study asserts that the structure of work organizations is affected more by production techniques than societal complexity. Empirical analysis suggests two trends: 1) production techniques that increase the importance of workers will influence rationality in work organizations, and 2) production techniques that increase the importance of workers and societal complexity will affect the bureaucratic elements of work organizations approximately equally. These findings challenge Udy’s (1970) thesis that complex peasant societies face more challenges than less complex societies in transitioning to modern industrial work forms.
Related Documents Cite More By Author - Entailment theory and method: a cross-cultural analysis of the sexual division of laborWhite, Douglas R. - Behavior Science Research, 1977 - 3 Hypotheses
This article discusses constraints on role behavior that affect the division of labor, focusing on women’s childcare responsibilities, the nature of production sequences, and occupational specialization. The authors employ entailment analysis to examine 50 activities; results suggest three findings: 1) men are more likely to be assigned tasks that require travel and exposure to danger, 2) men are more likely to perform tasks that are early in the production sequence, and 3) if women perform a task at an early stage of production, they are more likely to perform subsequent tasks.
Related Documents Cite More By Author - Symbolic or not-so-symbolic wounds: the behavioral ecology of human scarificationLudvico, Lisa Rose - Ethnology and Sociobiology, 1995 - 4 Hypotheses
This article tests four hypotheses regarding scarification, which is described as 1) a rite of passage, 2) a hardening/trauma procedure, 3) a nonadaptive sexually selected character, or 4) an adaptive pathogen driven sexually selected character. Only the third hypothesis is supported in a worldwide sample, suggesting that scarification is associated with polygyny. The other three are each supported in different regional subsamples—principally the first hypothesis (supported in Africa, the Insular Pacific, and South America).
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