Considers the effect of data quality and gender of ethnographer on the relationship between female status and cultural complexity. Suggest that data quality controls clarify the nature of the 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.

Author proposes and presents evidence in support of the theory that most societies practice virilocal or patrilocal residence (this is the "normal" pattern" and that matrilocal residence is adopted when societies migrate to an already populated area.

Drawing from cultural evolution theory, the authors develop a model to explain the origin and evolution of productive organizations (organizations specialized in producing goods and services to satisfy human needs). They propose that productive organizations have two characteristics: exclusive membership and enhanced social learning within the organization. They find their predictions supported in a global sample of premodern societies.

Using a sample of 80 countries and political regions, the present study examines the effect parasite stress has on people's trust towards ingroup and outgroup members. The findings do not offer support of there being a concave relationship between parasite stress and ingroup member trust. The results do indicate that there is a U-correlation between trusting outgroup members and parasite stress.

This study focuses on the factors associated with the development and persistence of an ideology of male supremacy. Authors identify several realms of culture that show a clear male preference and suggest that warfare is the most significant cause of the male supremacy complex in preindustrial societies. Authors hypothesize that warfare will be positively related to female infanticide. Results support this hypothesis. Another hypothesis relating diet to warfare and infanticide is provided, but not tested.

In this article, the authors seek to investigate why some societies reject agriculture despite its many benefits. By modeling data regarding ecological fitness and cultural transmission, the authors found predictors for the degree to which a society relies on agriculture. The authors conclude that the degree of fitness a local environment had for early domesticates as well as the degree of contact with neighboring societies strongly predicts levels of dependence on agriculture.

This article examines cultural forms of population control. Results suggest that female infanticide and warfare are interrelated and effective forms of population control.

The capacity for cumulative cultural evolution has often been invoked to explain the great diversity of habitats occupied by humans. This theory of cultural evolution emphasizes the gradual accumulation of technologies and cultural practices over many generations, and predicts that larger populations will generate more complex cultural adaptations than smaller, isolated ones. Here, the authors investigate the marine foraging tool repertoires of 10 Oceanic societies to determine whether population size and intergroup contact affect the cultural processes by which tool kits evolve.

The purpose of the present study is to provide insight on the debate concerning how best to organize societies: with more freedom (looseness) or with more constraint (tightness). In a comparison of 32 nations, Harrington, Boski, and Gelfand examine the relationship between tightness/looseness and three dimensions of societal well-being: psychosocial, health, and political/economic outcomes. Findings indicate that excessive constraint and/or freedom contribute to poorer psychosocial, health, and economic/political outcomes, as well as overall national-level well-being. These results suggest that a balance of freedom and constraint is associated with optimal societal well-being.