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Cross-Cultural Correlates of the Ownership of Private Property

Wed, 01 Jan 1992 05:00:00 GMT

Title: Cross-Cultural Correlates of the Ownership of Private Property Authors: Rudmin, Floyd Webster Abstract: Simmons’ (1937) data base of 109 variables measured on 71 societies was reanalyzed. Reliability comparisons were made with Murdock’s (1967) Ethnographic Atlas. Eliminated were 3 of Simmons’ cultures because of duplicated sampling within culture clusters, 12 variables because of missing data, 7 variables because of invariance, and 1 variable for doubtful reliability. A conservative analysis (p < .OOOl) showed private property in land and chattel to correlate with 21 variables falling into 3 clusters, interpretively labelled (1) the social ecology of agriculture, (2) social and material stratification, and (3) social security. Subject to the limitations of archived data and to the indeterminancy of correlational analysis, these findings support arguments that private property arose in agricultural society, but not theories that property is a patriarchal, antifemale institution. Speculations based on psychological literature suggest that private property empowers the defense of the self.

Cross-cultural correlates of the ownership of private property: a look from another database

Wed, 01 Jan 1992 05:00:00 GMT

Title: Cross-cultural correlates of the ownership of private property: a look from another database Authors: Rudmin, Floyd Webster Abstract: Swanson's (1966) database Simmons’ (1937) of 39 variables coded on 50 cultures was re-examined for cross-cultural correlates of the private ownership of property. Reliability comparisons were made with Murdock’s (1967) Ethnographic Atlas. Eliminated were one of Simmons’ cultures because of duplicated sampling within culture clusters and 7 variables because of doubtful reliability. A conservative analysis (p <.OOO3) showed the social institution of private property to be a positive correlate of (1) social classes, (2) agriculture in grain, (3) supernatural sanctions for morality, (4) primogeniture (5) active ancestral spirits (6) sovereign organization, (7) size of population and a negative correlate of (8) collecting and gathering, (9) outgroup intimacy and (10) hunting. Theories that property is a function of patriarchy were not supported, nor were arguments that property regimes were advanced by exogamy and other intimate interactions with alien people.

The Role of Dopamine in Locomotor Activity and Learning

Sat, 01 Oct 1983 04:00:00 GMT

Title: The Role of Dopamine in Locomotor Activity and Learning Authors: Beninger, Richard J. Abstract: The discovery that the brain contains neurons utilizing dopamine (DA) as their transmitter has led to studies of the behavioral function of these neurons. Changes in overall level of activity of DA neurons appear to produce parallel changes in locomotor activity. Additionally, DA neurons seem to mediate in part the effects of biologically significant (reinforcing) stimuli on learning. One way in which reinforcing stimuli produce learning is to increase the incentive motivational (response-eliciting) properties of neutral stimuli associated with them; also, reinforcing stimuli maintain the incentive motivational properties of previously conditioned incentive stimuli. Normal DA functioning appears to be required for the establishment and maintenance of incentive learning in naive animals. Previous incentive learning in trained animals can influence behavior for a time even when the function of DA neurons is disrupted; however, with continued testing in the absence of normal DA functioning, previously established conditioned incentive stimuli cease to influence behavior. From these observations and recent physiological, anatomical and biochemical studies of DA systems it is suggested that the biological substrate of DA-mediated incentive learning is a heterosynaptic facilitation of muscarinic cholinergic synapses. This model has important clinical implications since it has been suggested that DA hyperfunctioning underlies the development of schizophrenia. Description: Reprinted from BRAIN RESEARCH REVIEWS, Vol 6, No 2, 1983, pp 173-196, with permission from Elsevier. Brain Research Reviews Homepage: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01650173