This article examines the relationship between population size (and complexity) and the level of third-party punishment in economic games. Results demonstrate that people in larger, more complex societies engage in significantly more third-party punishment than people in small-scale societies.

This article challenges an earlier finding that hunter-gatherers are predominantly virilocal in residence. The author presents new tests of marital residence including early patterns in marital residence; results suggest that foragers are more multilocal than nonforagers. The author theorizes that bride service, food acquisition methods, small population size, little accumulated wealth, and low frequency of warfare among foragers could all influence the tendency toward multilocal residence.

This article examines variation in polygyny among foragers. Empirical analysis suggests that the level of male provisioning influences mating systems: higher male contribution to subsistence is associated with monogamy. The influences of pathogen stress, male-male competition, and male coercion are also considered.

This article explores the sexual division of labor among foragers, focusing on resource availability and constraints on women’s foraging activities. The authors conclude that “there is a greater division of foraging labor in more seasonal habitats where less gathering is possible and more extractive, tool-based foraging is required” (191).

This article explores the relationships between habitat and social organization among humans and other species. Diet, technology, group size, home range, mobility, kinship, marital residence, sexual division of labor, mating system, central places, food sharing, and egalitarianism are all considered.

This article seeks to understand male-female bonding by testing the relationship between male contribution to subsistence (a proxy for male provisioning) and female reproductive success in foraging societies. Analysis supports a positive association.

This article explores the interrelated roles of male parental investment (males' infant/child care and resource provisioning) and male-male competition (variation in male status) on the degree of monogamy or polygyny in a society. Marlowe argues that Degree of parental investment affects females' interest in resource-shopping versus gene-shopping. Also discussed is the idea that male-male competition affects males' inclination toward harem-defense or coercive polygyny. Particular attention is paid to variation in parental investment and male stratification across subsistence types.

This study exmaines the presence of High Gods in societies as a function of subsistence type, population size, and stratification. High Gods are thought to be a mechanism to encourage collective action in the face of environmental challenges. Animal husbandry was found to be a strong predictor of High Gods, especially gods that are active in human affairs or morally supportive.

This article examines the quality of forager habitats to determine whether agriculturalists occupy the most productive areas while modern forager groups are relegated to poor habitats. Findings indicate that there are slight but insignificant differences in the net primary productivity of foragers’ land and agriculturalists’ land. Further analysis of types of agriculturalists suggest that horticulturalists live in the most productive habitats, followed by intensive agriculturalists and finally pastoralists.

What is the evolutionary sequence of beliefs in hunter-gatherers? The authors attempt to answer this question by reconstructing the development of various traits in traditional societies using phylogenetic and linguistic source trees. Testing for correlated evolution between this reconstruction and population history as proxied by linguistic classification suggests the presence of animism at profound time depth, aligning with classical anthropological religious theory put forth by E.B. Tylor. Coevolutions between other religious concepts including shamanism, ancestor worship, active ancestor worship, high gods, active high gods, and belief in an afterlife are also examined.