The article examines whether cultural groups tend to use supernatural beliefs more to explain natural phenomena or social phenomena. Analysis of ethnographic text from 114 diverse societies reveals that supernatural explanations are more common for natural phenomena, consistent with the theory that humans tend to perceive intent and agency in the natural world. However, supernatural explanations of social phenomena were more prevalent in urbanized societies with greater social complexity and anonymity. The study highlights how people use supernatural beliefs to explain their world and how this varies across small-scale and urbanized communities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine marriage ceremony by generalizing an assumption underlying certain studies of puberty rites. It is hypothesized that when marriage ceremonies are viewed as a rite of passage they will be demonstrative of the changes the self experiences after marriage.

This study tests a broad "risk response" hypothesis: environmental risk can reduce parents' involvement and care which, through its effects on children's behavioral strategies later in life, ultimately produces a larger cultural model favoring risky behavior. Examinations of extramarital sex, aggression, theft, and witchcraft support this hypothesis, leading the authors to suggest that child development is the underpinning of cultural adaptation in the face of environmental change.

This book chapter examines relationships between the child-training behavior of mothers and the responsibilities of both mothers and others. Child-training behavior is also examined in relation to single and multiple family dwellings.

This study tests a broad hypothesis that alcohol is employed to relieve anxiety and feelings of powerlessness. Frequency of drunkenness and drunken brawling were associated with several variables, including supernatural beliefs, political systems, settlement patterns, and division of labor.

This study builds on a previous study of games by Roberts, Arth and Bush (1959) and offers a conflict interpretation of game involvement. Several significant relationships are observed between game type and child training variables.

The author attempts to test the "Oedipus-complex" hypothesis--the psychoanalytic idea that under certain conditions (such as the long-post partum sex taboo) males are sexually attracted to their mothers and as a consequence certain fears and anxiety are generaated. The hypothesis is tested at the societal-level using ethnographic data.

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.