This article tests a hypothesis regarding patterns of infant care in non-industrial societies. The authors find that a consistent pattern of infant care that emphasizes mother-infant contact exists among hunter-gatherers and other non-industrial societies. These infant care practices differ from those found in the United states that do not promote extensive infant-mother contact.

This article draws on psychoanalytic theory and a previous study by Whiting (1964) to test the relationship between parent-child sleeping arrangements, particularly the implied social distance of fathers, and the presence of circumcision for males. Circumcision is assumed to be a social correction for mother-oriented personality in sons.

This study examines the relationship between mother absence in child rearing and kinship terminology, particularly the differentiation of daughters and nieces. A significant association is found and the author offers theories of causality in both directions.

This study re-examines the hypotheses offered by Kleiman (1977) linking monogamy in humans to monogamy in other animals. Of seven hypotheses, only two were weakly supported when using a cross-cultural analysis.

This chapter discusses the predictors of the couvade and male circumcision ceremonies cross-culturally. New findings suggest relationships between these two variables and infant carrying practices, marital residence, and descent.

This article seeks to examine the distribution and frequency of bride-theft. Tylor's (1889) findings between various forms of marriage by capture and certain other social instituions are confirmed.

Author first tests the validity of the variables traditionallyused in tests of status envy theory. Then the author tests some of the implications of the theory and proposes somewhat different mechanisms.

This study explores ecological reasons that might explain why boys are mostly circumcised in tropical regions, particularly in Africa and the insular Pacific. The author postulates a long causal chain linking: 1) tropical climate to the growing of root and fruit crops; 2) the need to keep babies on mother's milk for as long as possible where the adult diet is lacking in protein; 3) a long post-partum sex taboo as a way to space births; 4) the practice of polygyny (and associated mother-child sleeping) in the face of a long sex taboo; 5) patrilocal residence; and 6) male initiation ceremonies which are believed to result from the combination of mother-child sleeping, the long poast-partum sex taboo and patrilocal residence.

This chapter examines the relationship between male parental behavior and influences of species, ecological and social factors. The authors first present a cross-phylogenetic perspective on paternal differences between species, then offer two quantitative studies: a comparative study of non-western human societies that correlates father-infant proximity with socioecological factors and another about father-infant proximity among the !Kung.

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.