This article presents a review of the scholarly work relating to marital quality. Cross-cultural testing of various predictors of marital qualtiy are presented singlely as well as multiple regression analyses.

This paper reports on a cross-cultural test of the theory that higher status of women causes higher divorce rates. This theory has typically been expressed in terms of variations in family authority or in terms of women's economic opportunities (375).

Textor summarizes cross-cultural findings on polygyny pertaining to cultural, environmental, psychological, and social phenomena.

This study tests three hypotheses on the evolution of the human pair-bond: male-provisioning, male mating competition, and the defense of offspring from other males. Findings indicate that male provisioning and mating competition are factors in the development of the pair-bond. Additional findings indicate that alloparentling, polygyny, and equal contribution to subsistence by each sex contribute to the security of the pair-bond.

This study focuses on predictors of divorce, cross-culturally. Variables measuring infidelity, infertility, personality, economy, kin, absence, health, ritual and politics are tested. An evolutionary/adaptionist approach is found to be most useful in explaining the nature of conjugal dissolution cross-culturally.

This book examines population growth rate and its correlates by testing 274 hypotheses (derived from multiple theories) with an 18-society sample. Forty-one of these hypotheses were significant at the .05 level, leading the author to accept these relationships as reflective of the real world. The 274 hypotheses are grouped into 51 broader hypotheses, and marked by (*) where relationships are significant as designated by the author or by significance p < 0.05.

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.

This study reveals that in hunting and gathering societies thought to be akin to those of our ancestors, female choice is constained by the control that parents exercise over their daughters. Since parental control is the typical pattern of mate choice among extant foragers, it is likely that this pattern was also prevalent throughout human evolution.

This book investigates sanctions for nonmarital conceptions or birth. The author conducts cross-cultural tests for hypotheses derived from a variety of theories. Results do not support one theory over another, but suggest that variables such as sociocultural complexity, family structure, descent, fraternal interest groups, sexual inequality, and child-parent relationships all affect the consequences of illegitimacy.

Previous studies have proposed a model of sexual selection that dictates that along with female and male choice, parental choice constitutes a significant sexual selection force in our species. This article aims at examining whether this model can also account for the mating patterns typical of agricultural and pastoral societies. The hypotheses are supported by the results presented.