The present research investigates food sharing and labor sharing practices of 98 nonindustrial societies. The aims are to: 1) document the frequency and scope of sharing, and 2) test the theory that greater sharing is adaptive in societies subject to more resource stress (including natural hazards).

The research examines daily food sharing norms of 73 preindustrial societies from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample. Multilevel regression models reveal that hunting and less predictable environments are not indicative of everyday food sharing, but offer support for many other predictions. Animal husbandry, external trade, daily labor sharing, and the presence of food storage are all predictive of daily food sharing practices whereas sharing is less common amongst large and stratified societies. These results align with evolutionary theories for food sharing practices.

This article examines the relationship between early food gratification, emotional predispositions to share food with others, and community systems. Results suggest that gratification of food needs varies with community type, and young children who receive food whenever they cry or ask are more likely to share food in adulthood. In broader terms, the need to receive from others is gratified differently under different sociological conditions, and these differences influence individuals toward divergent socially patterned behaviors in adulthood.

The second and third parts of this book classify the economic systems of foraging and agricultural societies in the SCCS based on correlations between their institutions of property an distribution. These economic types are then examined for relationships with other social, political, demographic, and environmental factors in order to draw tentative conclusions regarding the origins of the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. The fourth part of the book uses cross-national data to examine similar associations in industrial/service economies, and is not included here.

How do men and women cooperate with others? Previous research has claimed that men and women cooperate in different manners. However, using a meta-analytic approach, the authors of this article find that men and women actually cooperate to a similar extent. They consider differences in cooperation to be a response to specific societal situations and contexts.

Using multilevel modeling and society-level regressions as well as mediational path modeling, the authors test two alternative models that consider how resource stress, religious beliefs, and beyond-household food and labor sharing may be related. The resource stress model suggests that high resource stress has two consequences: 1) that such stress may lead to beliefs that gods and spirits are associated with weather and 2) that resource stress leads to more sharing. Furthermore, this model suggests that the relationship between resource stress and sharing is not mediated by god beliefs. The alternative model considered, the moralizing high god model, suggests that resource stress will lead to more sharing but it is mediated by moralizing high gods. Before testing the path models, the authors first consider the relationships between resource stress and beliefs about high gods, superior gods, and minor spirits involvement with weather. Since the results were strongest for high gods, the path models focused on high gods. The results largely support the resource stress model rather than the high god moralizing model.

This paper investigates the emotional and social outcomes of water sharing within societies and suggests water sharing is a unique reciprocity act that results in negative emotional outcomes, rather than the usual prestige and rank. A questionnaire regarding water sharing and receiving was carried out across 20 sites, targeting 250 houses per community. The authors found that both water sharing and receiving resulted in more distress and conflict than those who shared less.

This study tests the relationship between supernatural punishment (indexed by the importance of moralizing "high gods") and several proxy measures of cooperation. Results suggest that the presence of high gods is associated with money and credit, credit source, community size, jurisdictional hierarchy beyond the local community, and sanctions.

This study examines the interrelationships between achievement, aggression, psychological distress, competition and interpersonal behavior. Authors suggest that levels of achievement, aggression, and psychological distress are partly determined by corresponding levels of of competition and interpersonal intensity. Hypotheses are supported.

This article examines socialization for cooperation as a function of economic production. The author theorizes that in societies where large amounts of food production labor must be accomplished quickly, there is a higher cultural value placed on cooperation.