Iroquois tribal society was organized around matrilineal descent groups, the members of which lived together in a longhouse, had collective rights over land and tools, and were influential in decision-making processes.
Since social class in the United States is an achieved status, factors such as family background, the economy, and ethnic background do not have any influence on social mobility.
Since statuses are fixed in industrial states, individuals in these societies are unable to move into different social classes from the one in which they were born.
Because of both the strict marriage rules and postmarital residence rules found in hunter-gatherer societies, it is very difficult to obtain a divorce.
If a tribal society has norms that prescribe cross-cousin or parallel-cousin marriage and an individual does not have a cousin in the particular category, that individual must remain single for the rest of his or her life since no mates fit the norm.
Small-scale societies tend to have more social stratification than large-scale societies because there are fewer people to occupy the statuses and play the roles.
Brideservice occurs when an eligible woman offers her domestic services to her future or potential husband's family in exchange for allowing her to marry their son.