This paper examines patterns of cultural learning in pastoralist societies and compares them to those found in hunter-gatherer societies. The study analyzed 198 texts from 13 pastoralist cultures in the eHRAF World Cultures database and found that most cultural skills and knowledge were acquired in early childhood, with parents and non-parental adults as the primary sources of transmission. Teaching was the most common form of learning across all age groups, with minimal variation in transmission between different age groups. While similarities were found between the cultural learning patterns of pastoralists and hunter-gatherers, pastoralists were less likely to mention learning from peers and more likely to mention learning via local enhancement and stimulus enhancement. The importance of teaching did not increase with age in pastoralist societies, unlike in hunter-gatherer societies.

Derived from the evolutionary anthropology theory, this study examines the difference of importance placed on traditions and customs between cultures. The authors found that descendants from regions with less climatic stability place less emphasis on tradition and customs than those from more stable environments. The authors suggest that with climatic stability, the traditions and customs which have evolved and benefited the previous generations will be passed on to the next, therefore promoting cultural persistence.

This book discusses the characteristics of adolescence cross-culturally and examines the differences in the adolescent experience for males and females. Several relationships are tested in order to gain an understanding of cross-cultural patterns in adolescence.

What is the relationship between childhood experiences and adult skills? The authors of this article hypothesize that early learning situations can result in psychological effects which can later be reflected in adult skills. To test this hypothesis, they investigate how specific childhood activities which stimulate gestalt brain development, such as creative games and holistic learning experiences, translate into adult gestalt skills, such as complex representations of their environments and originality of art. Through a systems approach which employs three levels of analysis- neurophysiology, psychology, and anthropology- the authors find that children's games and learning techniques are correlated with adult environmental representation and artistic originality, ultimately supporting their hypothesis.

Schlegel and Barry explore the conditions under which adolescent boys' initiation ceremonies involve rituals that frighten or cause pain to the initiates. The authors look for cross-cultural differences and similarities in cultural features associated with harsh rituals, in particular, genital operations.

This paper examines Murdock's (1949) definitions and data pertaining to the universal functions of the nuclear family. The author asserts that Murdocks definitions and data are faulty and finds that Murdock's claims regarding the universality of nuclear families are unsupported.

Social scientists are equivocal as to the importance of teaching (as contrasted with other forms of learning) in traditional societies. While many cultural anthropologists have downplayed the importance of teaching, cognitive psychologists often argue that teaching is a salient human universal. Here the authors investigate cultural transmission among 23 hunter-gatherer populations to explore the relative importance of teaching among foragers.

To understand transmission of knowledge and its impact on human evolution history, this study explores the research question: "How do hunter-gatherer children learn subsistence skills?". The authors use meta-ethnography methods on 34 cultures from five continents discussing these topics. The results show that the learning process starts early in infancy when their parents take them to the excursions. In middle childhood, they already acquired gathering skills. Only in the start of adolescence, adults begin teaching how to hunt and to produce complex tools. The learning process continues into adulthood.

The article discusses the role of toys and tools in the development of skills and cultural transmission in hunter-gatherer societies. The authors present a cross-cultural inventory of objects made for and by hunter-gatherer children and adolescents, finding that toys and tools were primarily handled outside of explicit pedagogical contexts, and there is little evidence for formalised apprenticeships. The authors suggest that children's self-directed interactions with objects, especially during play, have a critical role in early-age enskillment. Both boys and girls tend to use objects in work and play that emulate the gendered division of labor in their communities, and many objects made by and for children had full-scale counterparts. Finally, the authors argue that the peer group is crucial to skill acquisition in hunter-gatherer societies.

This article uses the Standard Cross-Cultural Samples to test the relationship between disease and economic growth among sub-Saharan African societies. The authors suggest that a higher disease prevalence limits social integration and economic development since pre-colonial times. The variable measuring economic growth is the complexity of large or impressive structures. The hypotheses are that 1) pathogen stress is negatively correlated to the presence of complex buildings, and 2) pathogen stress is positively correlated to increased ethnic diversity. The results support both hypotheses, and there are additional results, like 1) the negative correlation between pathogen stress and current income per capita and 2) the negative correlation between the increased ethnic diversity and current income per capita. Overall, this article shows the robust relationship between disease and economic development.