Cultural Complexity: The Concept and Its Measurement

Abstract

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.