The present study attempts to replicate the Ember, Ember, and Russett (1992) worldwide finding that fighting rarely occurs between democracies in a sample of eastern African societies. Following the earlier study, the authors considered internal warfare to be an analog of international warfare and measures of political participation analogous to democracy. The researchers also explore if there is an association between political participation and committing atrocities. Contrary to past findings, internal warfare was not predicted by the same set of variables as the 1992 study, but there is an inverse relationship between committing atrocities and political participation. However, when additional variables were added, internal warfare was significantly predicted by less political participation.

In this study, the authors examine pathways to social inequality, specifically social class hierarchy, in 408 non-industrial societies. In a path model, they find social class hierarchy to be directly associated with increased population size, intensive agriculture and large animal husbandry, real property inheritance (unigeniture) and hereditary political succession, with an overall R-squared of 0.45. They conclude that a complex web of effects consisting of environmental variables, mediated by resource intensification, wealth transmission variables, and population size all shape social inequality.

This article tests the effects of variables associated with political participation on the frequency of internal warfare. Findings suggest support for the hypothesis that democracies rarely fight each other.

This study examines the influence of the "child-adult" conflict on the frequency of drunkenness in a culture. In particular, the author examines the socio-psychological factors that can induce a child-adult conflict, claiming that this conflict may be more common when mothers are the primary dispensers of rewards.

This article tests some conditions that may lead to the emergence of unilineal descent, focusing on unilocality and warfare. Unilineal descent is thought to be likely in a unilocal society without a centralized political system that is experiencing intra- or inter-societal warfare. The authors also posit that a "clan" system usually develops prior to a "lineage" system.

While it is widely accepted that there are a multitude of variables that contribute to a society’s level of democracy, the authors of this study argue that the prevalence of consanguinity is one that is often overlooked. Using a sample of 70 nations, they tested the relationship between consanguinity (defined as marriage and subsequent mating between second cousins or closer relatives) and level of democracy (defined by both the Polity IV scale and the EIU Index) and found a significant negative relationship. Similarly, when controlled for a host of different variables in multiple regression analysis, the significant relationship between consanguinity and level of democracy held true.

This chapter considers several forms of wealth transmission at marriage. The relationships between descent rules and incidence of bridewealth, dowry, and gift exchange are examined and several patterns emerge from empirical analysis.

This article tests various explainations for corporal punishment of children, including social complexity, a societal culture of violence, and whether help in child rearing is available. Analysis suggests that corporal punishment may be a parent's way to prepare children for societal power inequality.

This article reviews the literature referring to patterns of marital residence. Discussions include the psychological consequences for the individuals involved, variations in marital residence patterns, explanations of the types of kin or descent groups developed in response to varying marital residence patterns, unisex associations, and consequences of gender-based social organizations.

This paper reviews the results of the author's cross-cultural studies of war and aggression and their implications for prehistory.