A cluster analysis of data from societies in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample reveals that agricultural societies usually have one of four quite different economic systems. Although many anthropologists and historians consider agricultural economic systems to be the outcome of environmental, social, social-structural, and political variables, a statistical analysis indicates that very few such variables are correlated with the derived economic systems. The systems are thus revealed to stand as independent entities and are worthy of more intensive study.
Andreski, S. (1964). Elements of comparative sociology. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
2.
Aston, T. H., & Philpin, C. H. E. (Eds.). (1985). The Brenner debate: Agrarian class structure and economic development in pre-industrial Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press.
3.
Barry, H., III, & Schlegel, A. (Eds.). (1980). Cross-cultural samples and codes. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
4.
Brenner, R. (1985). The agrarian roots of European capitalism. In T. H. Aston & C. H. E. Philpin (Eds.), The Brenner debate: Agrarian class structure and economic development in pre-industrial Europe (pp. 213-327). New York: Cambridge University Press.
5.
Carneiro, R. (1970). Scale analysis, evolutionary sequences, and the rating of cultures. In R. Naroll & R. Cohen (Eds.), A handbook of method in cultural anthropology (pp. 834-872). Garden City, NY: Natural History Press.
6.
Diamond, J. (1999). Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies. New York: Norton.
7.
Domar, E. (1970). The causes of slavery or serfdom: A hypothesis. Journal of Economic History, 30, 18-31.
8.
Gray, J. P. (1996). Is the standard cross-cultural sample biased? A simulation study. Cross-Cultural Research, 30, 301-315.
9.
Gray, J. P. (2001). World cultures [CD-ROM]. Jamaica, New York: York College Press.
10.
Hayden, B. (1995). Pathways to power: Principles for creating socioeconomic inequalities. In T. D. Price & G. M. Feinman (Eds.), Foundations of social inequality (pp. 15-86). New York: Plenum.
11.
Herskovits, M. J. (1952). Economic anthropology: The economic life of primitive peoples. New York: Norton.
12.
Kelly, R. L. (1995). The foraging spectrum: Diversity in hunter-gatherer lifeways. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
13.
Kent, S. (1989). Farmers as hunters: The implications of sedentism. New York: Cambridge University Press.
14.
Marx, K. (1953). Grundrisse der Kritik der politischen Ökonomie (Rohentwurf) [Foundations of a critique of political economy]. Berlin, Germany: Dietz.
15.
Maxwell, B. A., Pryor, F. L., & Smith, C. (2002). Cluster analysis in cross-cultural research. World Cultures, 13, 22-39.
16.
Murdock, G. P., & White, D. R. (1969). The standard cross-cultural sample and its codes. Ethnology, 8, 329-369.
17.
Netting, R. (1990). Population, permanent agriculture, and polities: Unpacking the evolutionary portmanteau. In S. Upham (Ed.), The evolution of political systems: Sociopolitics in small scale sedentary societies (pp. 21-61). New York: Cambridge University Press.
18.
Nieboer, H. J. (1971). Slavery as an industrial system: Ethnological researches (2nd rev. ed.). The Hague, the Netherlands: M. Nijhoff.
19.
North, D. C. (1998). Economic performance through time. In C. K. Eicher & J. M. Staatz (Eds.), International agricultural development (3rd ed., pp. 78-90). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
20.
Postan, M. M., & Hatcher, J. (1985). Population and class relations in feudal society. In T. H. Aston & C. H. E. Philpin (Eds.), The Brenner debate: Agrarian class structure and economic development in pre-industrial Europe (pp. 64-78). New York: Cambridge University Press.
21.
Pryor, F. L. (1977). A comparative study of slavery. Journal of Comparative Economics, 1, 81-102.
22.
Pryor, F. L. (1980). Feudalism as an economic system: A review essay. Journal of Comparative Economics, 4, 56-77.
23.
Pryor, F. L. (1982a). The classification and analysis of precapitalist economic systems by Marx and Engels. History of Political Economy, 14, 521-543.
24.
Pryor, F. L. (1982b). Plantation economies as economic systems: A review essay. Journal of Comparative Economics, 6, 288-317.
25.
Pryor, F. L. (1985). The invention of the plow. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 27, 727-743.
26.
Pryor, F. L. (2005). Economic systems of foraging, agriculture, and industrial societies. New York: Cambridge University Press..
27.
Pryor, F. L. (in press). Defining market economic systems. Journal of Comparative Economics.
28.
Pryor, F. L., & Graburn, N. (1980). The myth of reciprocity. In K. J. Gergen & M. S. Greenberg (Eds.), Social exchange: Advances in theory and research (pp. 215-239). New York: Plenum.
29.
Rissanen, J. (1989). Stochastic complexity in statistical inquiry. Teaneck, NJ: World Scientific.
30.
Tökai, F. (1979). Essays in the Asiatic mode of production. Budapest, Hungary: Akadémiai Kiadó.
31.
Will, P.- E., & Wong, R. B. (Eds.). (1991). Nourish the people: The state civilian granary system in China, 1650-1850. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan.
