Carneiro presents work on the evolutionary sequences of cultures. He concludes that human societies have evolved in a direction towards increased complexity. He also discovers a specific sequence of cultural traits that societies have largely followed.

This study takes an evolutionary approach to understanding cultural development. The author suggests that "the degree of regularity in the relative order of development of any two traits is directly proportional to the evolutionary distance between them." Scale analysis supports this proposition.

This article examines the association between population size and social organization. Empirical analysis suggests that larger societies tend to develop more elaborate organization if they are to remain unified and integrated.