Studying analogous functions in two or more different cultures in order to determine whether or in what manner it might be influenced by the differing cultural factors. Also comparing social phenomena in different cultures to clarify the developmental influence of social and environmental factors.
Systematic comparative analysis in the social sciences is based upon the assumption that there is order or regularity in the world. By classifying phenomena in ways that focus upon the relationships between sets of events, it may therefore be possible to discover the dynamic relations that exist among them, in order to find orderly patterns of related actions. Such analysis may then inspire theories that explain classes of events by means of deductively related laws or regularities.