In a volume devoted to the understanding of the American family, the author, using data from 56 societies, tests a couple of hypotheses about role differentiation in the nuclear family.

This study examines husband-wife relationships, specifically rooming and sleeping arrangements, as they relate to variables such as infant care, subsistence, residence, and cultural complexity. Several hypotheses are tested and all are supported.

This book is a comprehensive analysis of many aspects of social structure including family, clan, community, kinship terminology, social organization, regulation of sex, incest taboos, and sexual choice.

This paper examines the behavior between close kin and affines of the opposite sex. The authors "point to certain differences between continental areas that are related to specific social factors, including the structure of descent groups and the nature of marriage arrangements."

The present study examines the relationship between pathogen prevalence and the domestic living-organization of 186 societies from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS). The measurement for pathogen stress consists of ten diseases described by Low (1991) and Caden and Steele (2013). These are dengue, typhus, plague, filariae, schistosomes, leishmanias, trypanosomes, malaria, leprosy, and spirochetes; the transmission for these diseases was contagious and/or mobile. The measurement for the living organization came from the 'Household Form' variable by Murdock and White (1969). The seven categories of household form variable were then re-coded into two variables. The first is modular, which includes single-family and family homestead. The second is communal and includes large communal structure, multifamily household, husband rotates, individuals, married, and husband separate. The findings offer support for the evolutionary hypothesis that modular living is adaptive because it may reduce pathogen stress. Specifically, pathogen stress is influential in the way people live.

This article explores the relationship between polygyny and witchcraft accusations in three societies in Kenya. It is argued that the closer co-wives live (have adjacent houses, common yard), the more likely they are to accuse one another of witchcraft. The affects of household structure on population density and intra-household relationships are also discussed.

This book is a comprehensive cross-cultural survey of family customs described by anthropologists. It asks about the range and frequency of variation, how the customs compare with American families, and the associations between traits. The author includes many qualitative descriptions in describing variation.

This article examines variation in kinship terminology. The authors develop a new typology of kinds of kinship terminologies, and they propose that terminologies will distinguish siblings of the same and opposite gender when there is a cultural emphasis on cross-sex relations. Empirical analysis supports that a prolonged post-partum sex taboo (rather than sibling avoidance) predicts the presence of a primary cross-parallel component in sibling terminology.

This study investigates correlates of the post-partum sex taboo. Empirical analysis identifies several predictors, from extensive agriculture to localized kin groups. The authors suggest that the taboo imposes a burden on women and unmarried or monogamous young men, and it is best maintained in a community in which elders are in firm control and married women are considered outsiders due to village exogamy.

This article examines predictors of intimacy between husbands and wives. Emphasis is on equality of spouses. A causal model is presented.