Political Decision Making and Conflict: Additional Cross-Cultural Codes and Scales
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Ross's cross-cultural codes assessing hostility towards other societies and acceptability of violence towards other societies correlated highly (r = .74).
“We measured prejudice using Ross’s [55] cross-cultural codes assessing hostility towards other societies and acceptability of violence towards other societies. These variables correlated highly (r = .74) and so we averaged them into a composite prejudice index.”
From Ecological and cultural factors underlying the global distribution of prejudice (2019) · cites this paper as [55]
Ross's factor analytic results revealed that 12 variables loaded highly on a common underlying factor called 'concentration of political power'-a defining feature of authoritarian political systems.
“Factor analytic results reported by Ross revealed that 12 of these variables loaded highly on a common underlying factor, which Ross called “concentration of political power”—a defining feature of authoritarian political systems.”
From Pathogens and Politics: Further Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism (2013) · cites this paper as [35]
The SCCS cultures are described by hundreds of numerically coded variables gathered by dozens of ethnographers, including multiple variables pertaining to systems of governance.
“the cultures that comprise the SCCS are described by hundreds of numerically coded variables gathered by dozens of different ethnographers—including multiple variables pertaining to systems of governance [35].”
From Pathogens and Politics: Further Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism (2013) · cites this paper as [35]
The 2-item warfare index has Cronbach's alpha = .45.
“for the 2-item scale, Cronbach’s alpha = .45”
From Pathogens and Politics: Further Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism (2013) · cites this paper as [35]
Warfare did not uniquely predict any of the 12 individual variables.
“Warfare did not uniquely predict any of these variables.”
From Pathogens and Politics: Further Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism (2013) · cites this paper as [35]
Warfare was not significantly associated with authoritarian governance.
“Neither malnutrition nor warfare was significantly associated with authoritarian governance.”
From Pathogens and Politics: Further Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism (2013) · cites this paper as [35]
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“Ross (1983) coded societies for the degree of ingroup loyalty, defined as “a we feeling directed towards the local community” (p. 179).”
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“This may be one reason why, despite (indeed because of) variations among habitats, what constitutes an ‘in-group’ varies considerably in size and meaning across cultures and has often been obscure to researchers (Ross, 1983).”
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“…1981, variable 573), warfare or fighting (Sanday, 1981, variable 679), intercommunity armed conflict (Whyte, 1978, variable 693), internal warfare (Ross, 1983, variable 773), and external warfare (Ross, 1983, variable 774) and valued war and violence against nonmembers of the group (Wheeler,…”
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“Political codes developed by Ross (1983) were used for adult dispersal, intergroup contact, local and societal loyalty, and hostility to outside groups.”
MethodEcological and cultural factors underlying the global distribution of prejudice
Jackson, J. C., van Egmond, M., Choi, V. K., Ember, C. R., Halberstadt, J., Balanovic, J., Basker, I. N., Boehnke, K., Buki, N., Fischer, R., et al. (2019) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0221953 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
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“…conflict (R) .37 .002 69 .07 n.s. 40 Local conflict (R) .22 .06 69 .24 n.s. 40 note: See appendix for variable definitions. source: R, Ross (1983); L, Lang ( 1995); E, Ember and Ember (1992b). table 2 Intraethnic Loyalty and Risk of Famine Loyalty (Ross) Loyalty (Lang) Measure rs p…”
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“…regions+ ~It is not a coincidence that none of the six exemplary peoples in my ostensive definition of foragers are Australian+! 49+ Kelly 2000, 37+ 50+ Ross 1983, 179 and tab+ 1+ 51+ Ember and Ember 1997+ 52+ Gat 2006, 14, and 2009, 576+ 53+ Gat 2006, 11+ 54+ Ibid+, 71, 75, 79, 130+ 55+…”
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“, 1978; Ember & Ember, 1994), and how warfare influences cultural norms (Ross, 1983; Sosis et al., 2007) amongst many other findings(1).”
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“-~-, Because we wanted our assistants to code variables according to how previous researchers (Ember & Ember, 1992b; Ross, 1983; Tuden & Marshall, 1980) had coded those variables, we randomly selected 9 cases from those coded previously with which to train our assistants.”
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“Table 5 lists two SCCS variables (V770, V786) for which accompanying coder estimates of data quality are given in V797, all coded by Ross (1983) with coded data reproduced in Divale (2004).”
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“Conflict (Social or Political) in the Local Community (Ross 1982) 1 = Endemic: a reality of daily existence (e.g., physical violence, feuding, bitter factionalism) 2 = High: Conflict present but not a pervasive aspect of daily life 3 = Moderate: Disagreements and differences do not result in high violence or severe di…”
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“To test this hypothesis, we chose the variable Decision-Making Bodies: How Most Decisions are Made (V764) (Ross, 1983, 1986, files STDS30.”
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“The perceived value of the society was operationalized using the variable “loyalty to the wider society” (Ross, 1983, 1986; STDS, 2001, File STDS30.”
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“SAV]) and information monopolization (recoded on the basis of the variable “Decision Making Bodies:How Most Decisions are Made” [V764] [Ross, 1983, 1986; SCCS, 1999, files STDS30.”
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“(In measuring political participation, we followed the work of Marc Ross, 1983, who had coded half the societies in our sample for local political participation; we coded the remainder.)”
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“Perceptions of Leaders’ Power (modified from Divale, 2000, Variable 759; Ross, 1983, Variable 4): The variable labels were reversed.”
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“Kung, and Yahgan all engaged in an “occasional” war—in other words, “at least every generation”—whereas the Andamanese and Slave went to war “yearly” or “at least every five years” (Kelly, 2000, pp. 50–53; cf. Ross, 1983, pp. 179, 182–83).”
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“Data on pre-industrial gender equality were available for 87 societies of the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample of pre-industrial cultures (Murdock & White, 1969; Ross, 1983).”
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“As mentioned above, Ember and Ember (1992b) find inconsistencies between their own coding of warfare frequency among ethnographic societies and those of Ross (1983), which they attribute to differences in focal time periods.”
InfluentialState formation across cultures and the role of grain, intensive agriculture, taxation and writing
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- Authors
- Ross, M. H.
- Corresponding author
- Ross, Marc Howard
- Venue
- Ethnology
- Publisher
- JSTOR
- Published
- 1983-04
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 169
- ISSN
- 0014-1828 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W329313094
- Cited by
- 81
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 10.20
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Locations
- Ethnology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Conflict and Governance
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Conflict Management and Negotiation
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Cross-Cultural and Social Analysis
- Keywords
- political decision-making, political conflict, cross-cultural measurement, cultural codes, measurement scales, cross-cultural comparison
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