This book investigates a broad hypothesis linking social solidarity and initiation ceremonies. The author proposes that “the degree of solidarity of a given social system determines the degree to which status transitions within it will be dramatized” (1). A variety of operational hypotheses are supported for both male and female initiation ceremonies.

This article builds upon gender inequality theory to examine childhood gender inequality in preindustrial societies. Multivariate and cluster analysis are used.

This study seeks to investigate the association between gender role attitudes and cultural values of embeddedness, hierarchy, and egalitarianism. After establishing approximate measurement equivalence, the authors ran correlations on data from 36 countries included in the latest edition of the International Social Survey Programme carried out in 2012. Results suggest that embeddedness and hierarchy are positively related to traditional gender role attitudes and egalitarianism is negatively related to traditional gender role attitudes.

The study aimed to explore the ideal-parent beliefs among mothers and fathers from 37 countries to determine whether the definition of an ideal parent varied across countries and social classes. Open-ended questions were used to gather data, and Leximancer Semantic Network Analysis was utilized to identify parenting culture zones and extract the predominant themes and concepts in each culture zone. The results revealed specific types of ideal-parent beliefs in five parenting culture zones, with subtle differences between the English-speaking, European Union, and Russian parents emphasizing "being caring," while French-speaking parents valued "listening" or being "present." Additionally, ideal-parent beliefs varied by education levels within culture zones, suggesting that social class differences should not be dismissed in parenting intervention research.

This paper proposes that the socio-cultural values of countries may be associated with increased mortality due to COVID-19. Using results from the World Values survey, the author assessed which values had the strongest association with a change in COVID-19 mortality in datasets consisting of all countries, upper-middle and high income economies, upper-middle income economies, high income economies, and advanced economies. The author also sought to determine whether the WVS values that were associated with COVID-19 mortality were also associated with general life expectancy. The results showed that COVID-19 mortality was increased in countries that placed a higher value on freedom of speech, political participation, religion, technocracy, post-materialism, social tolerance, law and order, and acceptance of authority. On the other hand, mortality was decreased in countries with high trust in major companies and institutions and that endorsed maintenance of order as a goal for a country. The author also found that values related to COVID-19 mortality did not predict general health outcomes, and that some values that predicted increased COVID-19 mortality actually predicted decreased mortality from other outcomes.

This chapter is concerned with the conditions under which task allocation between males and females changes in a way that alters the imbalance of power favoring males. The author finds that when female contribution to subsistence is high or low, female status is low, but when female and male contribution to subsistence is more balanced, there is greater equality between male and female status.

Drawing from risk sharing theory, this paper used data from 89 countries to examine the relationship between historic rainfall variation (before 1900) and the emergence of collectivism in, assumed to be, preindustrial societies. Contemporary values of individualistic responsibilities were used under the assumption that they will reflect preindustrial values. Findings support the hypothesis that countries with greater rainfall variation will have less individualism than countries with less rainfall variation. The author then examined rainfall variation and individual responsibility as a proposed catalyst for economic development. Support was found that as individualism increased, so did the economic development of a country.

This article tests hypotheses about the relationship between how the general anticipations of pain in develop in children and the formal belief systems of a society. The authors posit that beliefs in malevolent supernatural beings reflect punitive child rearing practices and beliefs in benevolent supernatural being relfect nurturing child rearing practices. Results generally support this hypothesis.

This article tests three types of theories of gender inequality in preindustrial societies. Bivariate and multivariate analyses suggest little support for militarist theories, moderate support for Marxian theories, and strong support for non-Marxian theories.

This article is chiefly concerned with the cross-national validity of measures of precarious manhood beliefs (PMB) as well as correlations between those beliefs, other gender ideologies, and measures of development and gender equity. While much of the orientation of this paper is psychological, individual constructions of gender and the ideologies that inform them are culturally specific. Thus, this sort of research allows researchers and theorists an opportunity to glimpse an outline of what might be a deep structure to masculinity cross-culturally. By analyzing data collected through surveys of 34,023 undergraduates in 62 countries, the researchers were able to test for psychometric isomorphism between individuals and country-level data in order to validate their measures. Subsequently, the researchers were able to test correlations between PMB and hostile sexism (HS), benevolent sexism (BS), hostility towards men (HM), and benevolence towards men (BM). This situated the PMB construct within a larger literature on the nature of masculinity. Finally, the researchers tested PMB against the Human Development Index (HDI) and Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). The researchers conclude that not only is their measure of precarious manhood beliefs valid but that this construct comports well with other theories of gender ideology cross-nationally.