Cultural Complexity
The Concept and Its Measurement
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24315510 |
|---|---|
| Authors | G Chick (0000-0001-9935-0032, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) |
| Year | 1997 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 275-307 |
| Publication date | 1997-11-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cross-Cultural Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1069-3971 • E-ISSN: 1552-3578 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/106939719703100401 |
| OpenAlex | W2061440497 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 47 |
| References cited | 55 |
Cultural complexity is one of the most commonly used variables in cross-cultural research. It has often been used as a measure of cultural evolution and has been shown to correlate with numerous other variables. At least eight measures of cultural complexity have been constructed since the late 1940s. The purpose of this article is to examine three of them, those proposed by Carneiro, Murdock and Provost, and Naroll. Particular attention will be devoted to the validity of these measures. Factor analysis and reliability analysis indicate that Murdock and Provost's index, designed for use with the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, although reliable, has two dimensions rather than one and may lack content and construct validity. A case is made for the use of the logarithm of the size of the largest settlement in a society as a measure of cultural complexity, as suggested by Naroll.
Construct validity · Content validity · cross-cultural measurement · cultural complexity · Cultural Evolution · Factor analysis · reliability statistics · settlement size · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample · Cross-Cultural and Social Analysis · Cultural Differences and Values · Language and cultural evolution
Case Studies in Cultural Control
Size, Complexity, and Organizational Variation
A Cognitivist’s View of the Units Debate in Cultural Anthropology
Modernization as Changes in Cultural Complexity
Predicting Leisure Satisfaction in Mainland China, Taiwan, and Brazil
Cultural Complexity Revisited
Economy and Religion in the Neolithic Revolution
Games in Culture Revisited
House Floor Area as a Correlate of Marital Residence Pattern
Culture-Bearing Units and the Units of Culture
Multiple Predictors of Contribution by Women to Agriculture
Leisure and Cultural Complexity
The Ibadan Conference and Beyond
Settlement scaling and increasing returns in an ancient society
Cultural Influences on Personality
Did alcohol facilitate the evolution of complex societies
Urban Scalograms
Behavioral Relations for Components of Recent Preindustrial Modernization
Social complexity and inequality in the Late Neolithic of the Central Balkans
Material Scaffolds in Numbers and Time
Exploring the Effects of “Smart City” in the Inner-City Fabric of the Mediterranean Metropolis
Is leisure studies “ethnocentric”? A view from Taichung, Taiwan
The Influence of Individualism and Drinking Identity on Alcohol Problems
What connects positivism and interpretivism in cross-cultural management studies
Evaluating Social Complexity and Inequality in the Balkans Between 6500 and 4200 BC
Cultural Complexity Thinking by Social Workers in Their Address of Sustainable Development Goals in a Culturally Diverse South Africa
Settlement scaling and economic change in the Central Andes
Measuring the Complexity of Past Social Systems
The role of materiality in numerical cognition
Flashpackers
A Cross-Regional Comparison of Recreation Patterns of Older Hunters
Por que a sociedade sambaquiana deve ser considerada como de meio termo
Ethnicity as a Variable in Leisure Research
Gambling Across Cultures
Psychological Dimensions of Unemployment
Science, materialism, and the quest for an anthropology of leisure
An Exploration of Leisure Motivation as Cultural Practices
The Weight of the Past
Power and Wisdom
Individualism-Collectivism’ as an Explanatory Device for Mental Illness Stigma
Coevolution of religious and political authority in Austronesian societies
Male Androphilia in the Ancestral Environment
Scaling of Hunter-Gatherer Camp Size and Human Sociality
Sustainability and an archaeology of the future
Cross-Cultural Comparative Approaches in Archaeology
Settlement Scaling in Middle-Range Societies
Universal Patterns in Cultural Evolution
Ethnographic Atlas
At Home in the Universe
Measurement theory for the behavioral sciences
Culture
Principles of anthropology
Slavery as an Industrial System
Reliability and Validity Assessment
The Origins of Order
A Mathematical Theory of Communication
The Cultural Part of Cognition
Basic color terms
Cultural Anthropology
Rethinking Polygyny
The Politics of Reproductive Ritual
Rise of Anthropological Theory
The Social Organization of Australian Tribes
The Social Organization of Australian Tribes
Magico-Religious Practitioner Types and Socioeconomic Conditions
Female Status and Cultural Evolution
The Idea of Culture in the Social Sciences
The Idea of Culture in the Social Sciences
Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests
An Index of Sociocultural Development Applicable to Precivilized Societies
Standardization of an Index of Sociocultural Development for Precivilized Societies 1
A Preliminary Index of Social Development
Natural Selection in Cultural Evolution
Proxemics [and Comments and Replies]
Warfare, Aggression, and Resource Problems
Leisure, Labor, and the Complexity of Culture
Societal Complexity and Lexical Growth
A Basis for Scaling Qualitative Data
Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix
The Material Culture and Social Institutions of the Simpler Peoples
The Evolution of Complexity in Human Societies and Its Mathematical Expression
Art Styles as Reflections of Sociopolitical Complexity
Settlement Patterns and Community Organization
Measurement of Cultural Complexity
Traits Inculcated in Childhood
Standard Cross-Cultural Sample
The Hidden Dimension
Art Styles, Social Stratification, and Cognition
Culture as Consensus
Art Styles as Cultural Cognitive Maps1
Games in Culture
Comparative Sociology, 1950-1963
Cross-Cultural Comparisons
On the Relationship between Size of Population and Complexity of Social Organization
Scale Analysis as an Instrument for the Study of Cultural Evolution
Societal Complexity
Regions Based on Social Structure
Social Structural Bases of Art
| Citations per year | 1.68 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1998 - 2026 (29) |
| Highly cited | No |