Prevailing anthropological theory holds that social norms restricting the promiscuity of women tend to be more prevalent in pastoralist societies, where the long periods of unmonitored separation between spouses that often arise as a result of animal herding tends to result in stricter repression of female sexuality. This article explores the relationship between several societies' historical reliance on pastoralism and their attitudes towards four topics related to female promiscuity: abortion, female mobility, female promiscuity and female genital mutilation. The author finds all for topics to be significantly correlated with historical reliance on pastoralism.

This article investigates residence, descent rules, and family structure. Empirical analysis suggests that they are associated with settlement patterns, particularly economic and demographic variables.

While a growing body of research being conducted in Western societies suggests that both religious/spiritual (R/S) and so-called “pro-science” belief systems are correlated with better health and well-being, a widespread perception also exists that these two categories of belief systems are fundamentally incompatible. This article tests that perception. The authors finds that cross-culturally – and particularly outside of modern Western societies – it is largely incorrect. Rather, around the world individuals adhere to both R/S and pro-science belief systems at the same time, and often benefit from both of them.

Research sampled 143 societies from the Standard Cross Cultural Sample to test the relationship between honor culture, social rewards for warriors, and intergroup conflicts. Using mediation analysis based on multiple regression, and structural equation modeling, the research supported the theory that honor culture was positively associated with intergroup conflict, and that this relationship was mediated by social rewards for warriors.

Using a self selected sample of 33 ex British colonies and the Ethnic Power Relations database, the author sampled 170 ethnic groups from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to test for association between precolonial state formation, colonial state building tactics, and modern ethnic conflicts. The author theorized that ethnic groups that were centrally governed before the colonial period were less likely to be recruited to colonial security forces, leaving them out of the picture during the formation of the independence movement and the formation of a post-colonial regime. This in turn is theorized to lead to greater contemporary armed conflict against the regime from which they were excluded.

Researchers examine the body of literature on the practice of geophagy(the consumption of earth), shining a light on the harms, benefits, and proposed reasoning behind the practice cross-sectionally. In addition to this review of the literature, gaps in the literature and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The biological success derived from cumulative culture and cooperation and their association with ancestral group structure is examined. It is suggested that inclusive fitness cannot explain extensive cooperation in hunter-gatherers because in most of the foraging societies examined, most individuals in residential groups are unrelated. These large social networks may explain why humans are capable of social learning.

The authors of this article evaluate how the legacies of early statehood (i.e., precolonial centralized ethnic groups) in Africa continue to impact democratic governance. They find a positive relationship between early states and support for autocratic rule, especially in former British colonies that were highly centralized prior to colonization. They suggest that the transmission of political and cultural norms play an important role in the support for autocracies.

Researchers examine the ethnographic record, sampling 82 hunter gatherer societies from the HRAF World Cultures database, for cross-cultural patterns of archaeological evidence of knowledge of astronomy and constellations. Surveying the data, researchers identified many patterns in the upper paleolithic, noting the importance of further examination of this topic.

Do tropical hunter-gatherers follow the diet known today as the Paleo diet? Using nutritional data on 11 tropical hunter-gatherer groups, this study asses dietary composition. The results show that there are high levels of variation in the distribution of protein, fat, and carbohydrates among the sample of 11 hunter-gatherer groups.