This study asks the following research questions: What are the dynamics of land ownership norms over time? Do these changes follow predetermined trajectories? The authors utilize biogeographical and evolutionary analyses to explore temporal and spatial patterns in land ownership norms within a sample of 73 Bantu societies. For the first component of the research, they test three prominent hypotheses regarding evolutionary trajectories: rectilinear, unilinear, and shift without restriction. For the second component, they use a multi-model inference approach to evaluate three hypotheses regarding the possible spatial patterns of land ownership. The results show evidence for the unilinear trajectory in type, but not with a consistent decrease in group ownership in size. Land ownership is more likely in areas with neighboring landowners and predictable resource productivity, while subsistence type is not significantly correlated with type of land ownership.

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 authors present a bioeconomic model of hunter-gatherer foraging effort to quantitatively represent forager intensification. Using cross-cultural data, the model is evaluated as a means to better understand variation in residential stability and resource ownership.

This article examines variation in childrens' socialization anxiety across societies of different subsistence types.

The article discusses the role of land ownership in natural resource management and social-ecological resilience, and explores the factors that determine ownership norms in human societies. The study tests long-standing theories from ecology, economics, and anthropology regarding the potential drivers of land ownership, including resource defensibility, subsistence strategies, population pressure, political complexity, and cultural transmission mechanisms. Using cultural and environmental data from 102 societies, the study found an increased probability of land ownership in mountainous environments and societies with higher population densities. The study also found support for the idea that neighboring societies might influence land ownership. However, there was less support for variables associated with subsistence strategies and political complexity.

This study examines land ownership and territoriality among hunter-gatherers in relation to resource density and predictability and defense technology. A model is presented and briefly tested on a cross-cultural sample of 14 hunter-gatherer societies. Results suggest that societies in more resource-rich areas will be more territorial than societies in less resource-rich areas.

This paper poses and tests relationships between local spatial variability of rainfall and property rights, as well as the degree of hierarchy, across 41 different tribal societies in Sudan. The authors find that there is a significant negative relationship between rainfall variability and degree of hierarchy. They also find that in the presence of local rainfall variability in Sudan, members of a tribe are more likely to establish common property institutions that allow access to all members.

The present study builds upon Rudmin's 1992a publication by using a second data base to replicate and evaluate analyses on the cross-cultural correlates of private property ownership. Rudmin seeks to assess the reliability of Swanson's (1966) data base of 39 variables coded on 50 cultures. To do so, Swanson's data was evaluated against matching societies and variables from Murdock's (1967) Ethnographic Atlas. Swanson's reliable variables are tested against three measures of property ownership, one from Swanson and two from Murdock. Rudmin discusses results and speculates why certain clusters of societal variables correlate with private property ownership.

In this study, the authors examine pathways to social inequality, specifically social class hierarchy, in 408 non-industrial societies. In a path model, they find social class hierarchy to be directly associated with increased population size, intensive agriculture and large animal husbandry, real property inheritance (unigeniture) and hereditary political succession, with an overall R-squared of 0.45. They conclude that a complex web of effects consisting of environmental variables, mediated by resource intensification, wealth transmission variables, and population size all shape social inequality.

The present study aims to evaluate correlations of private property from two of Murdock's datasets, one of 147 societies (1981) and the other of 312 societies (1967). Altogether the author tested 146 variables coded by Murdock against variables regarding the ownership of land and of movables drawn from Murdock (1967), Simmons (1937), and Swanson (1960). In total, there were 51 statistically significant correlations between private property ownership and other variables. Additionally, the author summarizes the results from this article and the two that preceded it stating that throughout all of the correlations he ran, the practice of agriculture, the use of cereal grains, and the presence of castes and classes were the only variables that predicted private property in all of the datasets that were utilized.