This article offers a critique of Stover and Hope (1984). Gray challenges their findings and suggests that a third variable, sovereign groups, explains the correlation between monotheism and gender status.

This study examines the relationship between society and ideology focusing on gender status and religious beliefs. Hypotheses are tested to characterize the relationship and determine the impact of subsistence pattern on this interaction.

Belief in moralizing high gods (MHGs) has been theorized as a response to unfavorable environments, as a way to normalize behavior. In this study, researchers test the theory by creating a model for predicting the distribution of MHGs. They run many alternative models, testing the effects of resource abundance, climate stability, and pertinent social factors on the occurrence of belief in MHGs. Based on the ten most supported models, they create an average model that predicts MHGs within cultures with “excellent” accuracy.

The main premise of the present study is to investigate the relationship between monotheism and dependence nurturance during early childhood and adulthood. Terry notes the human need to explain and understand the world, and theorizes that this understanding derives from personal experience, learned information, and supernatural explanation. Terry tests the hypothesis that supernatural explanations (monothestic beliefs) will be formulated if individuals cannot depend on their own experiences and/or others to reduce uncertainty (a result of independence training).

This book is concerned with explaining variation in the status of women. The author, after measuring over 50 aspects of status, first concludes that status is not a unitary concept. Therefore the author looks at 10 different domains of status. Many traditional explanations are not supported; most support is found for the influence of social complexity which generally lowers female status.

This book examines naming practices cross-culturally. The author posits that naming practices help to both reflect and create conceptions of personal identity. Several correlations between name meanings and practices and various sociocultural variables are presented.

This article builds upon gender inequality theory to examine childhood gender inequality in preindustrial societies. Multivariate and cluster analysis are used.

This book provides a summary of data available in the Ethnographic Atlas. Social, political, economic, and kinship variables are included, as well as information about religious beliefs, social restrictions, and games. Data is divided into world areas for the purposes of regional comparison.

The researchers conducted four studies using multiple methods. All of the studies examined the ways in which conflict may shape religion, and, more specifically whether conflict relates to an increased belief in a punitive god. Study 2 compared individuals from four countries; study 4 used worldwide data. We don't report results from the American sample (study 1) or from study 3. As a result of all four studies, the researchers suggest that since beliefs in punitive gods are better able to preserve order and enforce traditions, they may be particularly attractive during times of conflict.

Researchers sampled 106 Austronesian societies from the Pulotu database to study the way political complexity evolves in relation to religious beliefs and practices. Specifically, they attempt to test the causal theory that supernatural punishment played a causal role in the emergence of large, complex societies. They use phylogenetic models to control for Galton's Problem in testing the supernatural punishment hypothesis in an effort to demonstrate the effectiveness of utilizing cross-cultural datasets in evaluating evolutionary change in human social organization.