ABSTRACT
The application of the combination modes theory to a number of different, empirically based case studies has both put forward this alternative and complementary theoretical analysis and addressed such weaknesses as outlined above through a different combination modes based emphasis. The combination modes theory allowed reader to analyse how social change occurred from the top down exacerbating internal foment and giving rise to the commune system, and then from the bottom up during the commune period which was the focus of our examination. It also showed how women were the inferior, yet essential structural links who through their reproductive capacity kept lineage/family/ household wealth and inheritance within patrilineal clan groups. Cross-cultural analysis presents many difficulties because the social organisation of each society is structured differently according to the constitution of it's modes of kinship, work and ethnicity.
