Authors conduct a meta-analysis of 17 studies that tested for an association between grandparental survival and grandchild survival in patrilineal populations. Results show that the survival of the maternal grandparents is significantly related to the survival of the grandchild. The survival of the parternal grandparents is not associated with grandchild survival. The authors compare their results to previous hypotheses that relate grandparental and grandoffspring survival and find that there results are most in line with the Local Resource Competition Hypothesis.

High infant and child mortality rates are suggested to be one of the most enduring and important features of ancestral human environments, referred to as the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness (EEA). These rates contrast with the very low rates of infant and child mortality among many industrialized nations since the 19th and 20th centuries. The authors compare data from recent hunter-gatherer and agricultural societies, historical records, and non-human primates in attempt to quantitatively describe infant and child mortality rates during the EEA.

The authors predict that fitness outcomes will be negatively associated with spousal relatedness among foragers but positively associated among non-foragers, due to the greater social benefits of intensive kinship systems among non-foragers. Support is found for this hypothesis; however, an interaction effect is discovered with inbreeding, which appears to account for the variability in these relationships independent of subsistence activity. The authors qualify this support in order to explain why the incidence of cousin-marriage in non-foraging societies is not higher.

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.

The purpose of this article is to examine circumcision and segregation of males at puberty. It is suggested that when the son has insufficient contact with his father due to the separation caused by polygynous relationships, the son may develop a feminine personality. The significance of this is compared with the significance of a close mother-son relationship.

"This paper presents an exploratory attempt to solve the problem of how to infer traits for which no direct material evidence remains." The author suggests that the archeologically defined community pattern can predict several sociocultural traits. Results support this hypothesis.

This article examines parent-in-law avoidance in non-industrial societies. The author suggests that in-law avoidance is associated with characteristics of kinship structure, such as lineality, residence and family type. A psychological interpretation is also offered. Results support hypotheses relating to kinship structure.

In this article, the authors seek to test the theory that the veiling of women is a form of male mate guarding strategy, especially in harsh environments (specifically those with poor health and high mortality). They test this hypothesis using survey data drawn from 25 majority Muslim countries. This theory found support in the results of their statistical tests. In addition to testing the hypotheses articulated in the paper (as noted above), they also ran correlations between income level, importance of religion, and a countries sex ratio and views on the importance of veiling.

This study provides the first tests of the relationships between population-level adolescent fertility rates and mortality risk at two different time points. The hypotheses are based in life-history theory, which predicts that human reproductive choices are shaped by mortality. The authors find that reproductive strategies are significantly predicted by both early (between ages 1-7) risks of mortality and current cues of mortality risk.

Dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) exhibits the largest number of polymorphisms of any dopamine receptor yet identified, and variation in DRD4 has been linked to variation in traits such as novelty-seeking and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. DRD4 also exhibits large variation between populations. Here, the authors test the hypothesis that natural selection acting on DRD4 may account for variation in between-population migratory patterns, using genetic and historical data from 39 populations.