This paper discusses the relationship between floor area and settlement population.

The author compares three scales of social complexity (Naroll's Social Development Index, Freeman's Scale, and Marsh's Index of Differentiation) and determine whether they tend to measure the same developmental variable. The author's statistical comparisons illustrate that each scale applies the same standard in ranking societies

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 alliance theory and kin selection theory to examine the relationship between consanguineous marriage and descent system. The author argues that there is no relationship between the severity of incest taboos and the rules of exogamy or endogamy. A series of testable hypotheses regarding incest, marital, and descent rules are presented.

This article examines the universal tendency for languages, regardless of their historical relationships, to develop similar words for mother and father on the basis of nursery forms. Findings suggest that Ma, Na, Pa, and Ta are significantly more common sound classes denoting the mother or father.

This article investigates peer relations in infancy, both in primates and in preindustrial human societies. Data from these populations shows a strong tendency toward a multi-age composition of play groups rather than solely peer-aged play groups for infants. Patterns in child care across societies of different subsistence types are empirically examined.

This study presents a theory for Aberle's (1967) finding that "the merging of relations in the first ascending and descending generations implies the merging of relations in the second ascending and descending generations." The author tests further implications in a cross-cultural sample.

This paper "reduces Murdock's 210 categories to 30 variables, and intercorrelates and factor analyzes the variables for six world subdivisions as well as for the entire world." This article also discusses factor analysis as a method and examines the correlations more closely between the two regions that differed the most, North America and the Circum-Mediterranean.

This article discusses initiation rites for girls. Specifically explored are the reasons why the ceremonies are observed in some societies and omitted in others and what the variations between societies demonstrates.

Authors explore the problem of data quality control, systematic error and spurious correlations possibly caused by systematic errors in global cross-cultural studies. They offer a solution (the use of control variables investigating potential sources of systematic error) and apply the technique to a cross-cultural study of the substantive correlates of societal organization and modes of marriage.