The history and diversity of recordkeeping worldwide is presented in connection with the effect of recordkeeping on social and economic development.

The history and diversity of recordkeeping worldwide is presented in connection with the effect of recordkeeping on social and economic development.

This study develops a model of the conditions under which a societies switch from a anarchy to a hierarchy. Empirical results suggest that the presence of police, technological sophistication, population density, and food storage are positively associated with the presence of a territorial hierarchy.

The present study aims to assess the reliability of Simmons' (1937) database of 109 variables coded for 71 societies. Simmons' data was evaluated against matching societies and variables from Murdock's (1967) Ethnographic Atlas. The ultimate purpose of Rudmin's analysis is to identify the features of societies that are correlated with the private ownership of property. To do so, Simmons' reliable variables are tested against four measures of property ownership, two from Simmons and two from Murdock. Rudmin discusses results and speculates why certain clusters of societal variables correlate with private property ownership.

This study presents a theory of land inheritance that "focuses on the incentives that land inheritence rules create for potential heirs" and tests this theory on a cross-cultural sample.

This study examines the relationship between population pressure and socioeconomic complexity in a cross-cultural sample of hunter-gatherer groups. The author suggests a causal component to the positive correlations found, arguing that increasing population pressure on food resources requires increasing storage dependence, which in turn drives sedentism and other indicators of socioeconomic complexity.

This study investigates the relationship between cultural complexity and female premarital sexual freedom among foragers. To explain the decline of premarital sexual freedom, the authors discuss a few key trends such as the growth of social control and the decline of female status, as well as other variables such as intensification of foraging, social stratification, accumulation of wealth, political integration, and fixity of settlement. A model relating these variables is presented.

This study tests the common belief that hunter-gatherers suffer more famine than other subsistence types. Controlling for habitat quality, authors examine the relationship between famine and subsistence type and find that hunter-gatherers actually experience significantly less famine than other subsistence types.

This study uses Bayesian phylogenetic regression modelling across 131 largely non-industrial societies to test how variation of punishment is impacted by social, economic, and political organization. The authors focus on the presence of norm violations and types of punishments, and explores their relationships. The norm violations include adultery, rape, religious violations, food violations, and war cowardice. While the types of punishment are reputational, material, physical, or education. This study suggests a hypothesis for each type of punishment in relation to socioecological variables.

This paper explores the relationship between games of chance and various aspects of infant socialization, as well as subsistence economy and social organization. Several significant associations were found between these variables.