This study focuses on preferences for thinness or fatness in women cross-culturally. Results contradict previous studies and the hypothesis that preference for fatness in women is predicted by resource scarcity. Alternative explanations for valuation of fatness are explored, including climate and male dominance.

The authors examine a world-wide sample of cultures to assess whether the romantic-sexual kiss is a human universal. They also test for an association between romantic-sexual kissing and social complexity.

This study tests the association between pathogen risk and degree of polygyny and sexual advertisement. Results show that the greater the risk of serious pathogens, the greater the degree of polygyny. The correlation between pathogen risk and sexual signals is only marginally significant. An association between mate choice and resource control is also examined.

Textor summarizes cross-cultural male initiation rites findings pertaining to cultural, environmental, psychological, and social phenomena.

This paper investigates love magic, proposing that it is a form of indirect communication in the development of male-female bonds. Findings support the hypothesis.

In order to evaluate an adaptive justification for restriction of ritualized physical contact, the authors test association between three manifestations of physical interaction and prevalence of pathogens cross-culturally. Their expectation, supported by two of the three tested hypotheses, is that higher pathogen prevalence will lead to customs of restricted physical contact. Both cultural and biological evolution are suggested to be influential in selecting for physically intimate behaviors.

This article examines reasons for the variation in sexual foreplay practices cross-culturally. Results suggest that exclusive mother-child sleeping arrangements is significantly associated with the presence of foreplay.

This study focuses on cultural preferences for skin pigmentation. Findings indicate a general preference for lighter pigmentation in women. Cultural and biological theories are offered, and the authors suggest the skin-pigmentation preference is an instance of gene-culture coevolution. Areas for further research to explain the relationship of this finding with other features of society are suggested.

The author attempts to test the "Oedipus-complex" hypothesis--the psychoanalytic idea that under certain conditions (such as the long-post partum sex taboo) males are sexually attracted to their mothers and as a consequence certain fears and anxiety are generaated. The hypothesis is tested at the societal-level using ethnographic data.

This paper is concerned with the variation in sexual behavior in humans. Authors test hypotheses regarding the relationships between sexual behaviors and beliefs concerning sex.