This article offers an analysis of the rape of women cross-culturally, positing that rape is present under certain cultural circumstances. The author tests for correlations between rape and aspects of sexual repression, group violence, childrearing, and ideologies of male dominance. There are significant associations between male sexual violence and other types of violence, as well as between rape and ideologies of male dominance.

This study tests an ecological-economic theory of female contribution to subsistence, focusing on subsistence type as a potential correlate. In an exploratory analysis, 28 independent variables (not all listed below) are examined. The relationship between female contribution to subsistence and female status is also examined.

This chapter is concerned with the conditions under which task allocation between males and females changes in a way that alters the imbalance of power favoring males. The author finds that when female contribution to subsistence is high or low, female status is low, but when female and male contribution to subsistence is more balanced, there is greater equality between male and female status.

This article focuses on ecological correlates of sexual division in the control of resources. The author tests several ecological theories put forth by others. Sex coalitions are examined in humans, and sexual dimorphism in resource acquisition and control is discussed.

This book investigates a broad hypothesis linking social solidarity and initiation ceremonies. The author proposes that “the degree of solidarity of a given social system determines the degree to which status transitions within it will be dramatized” (1). A variety of operational hypotheses are supported for both male and female initiation ceremonies.

This study first reviews two explanations of menstrual taboos: taboos as an aspect of social rigidity and a psychogenic interpretation of menstrual taboos. The authors chiefly advocate a sociogenic explanation of menstrual taboos.

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

Cultures vary widely in regards to beauty standards for female body fat: while industrialized nations typically prefer thinness in women, ethnographic reports indicate that plumpness is valued in many small-scale societies. Here the authors evaluate several hypotheses that relate variation in female body fat preference to variation in socioecology such as food storage, climate, male social dominance, valuation and restriction of women's work, and female stress during adolescence.

Drawing on various theories regarding the sexual division of labor, Broude examines the relationship between task differentiation by sex and gender-related behaviors/customs.

The authors of the present study investigate the psychological correlates of heavy drinking by using thematic content of folktales as a reflection of the cognitive processes of people in a given society. Subsequently, thematic variables are compared to ethnographic ratings in order to better understand how and if thought and reality correlate. Results are examined in the context of previous findings by other researchers, namely D. Horton (1943).