This study seeks to investigate the association between gender role attitudes and cultural values of embeddedness, hierarchy, and egalitarianism. After establishing approximate measurement equivalence, the authors ran correlations on data from 36 countries included in the latest edition of the International Social Survey Programme carried out in 2012. Results suggest that embeddedness and hierarchy are positively related to traditional gender role attitudes and egalitarianism is negatively related to traditional gender role attitudes.

The article examines whether cultural groups tend to use supernatural beliefs more to explain natural phenomena or social phenomena. Analysis of ethnographic text from 114 diverse societies reveals that supernatural explanations are more common for natural phenomena, consistent with the theory that humans tend to perceive intent and agency in the natural world. However, supernatural explanations of social phenomena were more prevalent in urbanized societies with greater social complexity and anonymity. The study highlights how people use supernatural beliefs to explain their world and how this varies across small-scale and urbanized communities.

Genetic, linguistic, and geographic data can be used to explain the distribution of cultural units ("semes") and to understand the evolutionary mechanisms of culture. Three broad models of cultural transmission attempt to explain why cultures share semes: (1) Cultural diffusion, emphasizing horizontal transmission. (2) Local adaptation, where trail-and-error learning leads to the independent adoption of semes by different peoples living in similar environments. (3) Demic diffusion, which emphasizes vertical and frequency-dependent transmission. Authors test the explanatory power of each model using cultural, genetic, linguistic and geographic data from 36 African cultures.

The authors examine the relationship between magico-religious practitioner type and socioeconomic variables in order to present a typology of magico-religious practitioners. Three bases for magico-religious practitioners are discussed in terms of selection procedures and activities. Several hypotheses are empirically tested, and descriptive generalizations derived from analyses are presented.

This study investigates the relationship between cultural complexity and female premarital sexual freedom among foragers. To explain the decline of premarital sexual freedom, the authors discuss a few key trends such as the growth of social control and the decline of female status, as well as other variables such as intensification of foraging, social stratification, accumulation of wealth, political integration, and fixity of settlement. A model relating these variables is presented.

"This article provides a set of codes that rate the starvation and famine experiences of societies in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample. The codes are used to test several theoretical generalizations regarding the underlying causes of famine." Results indicate that seasonal starvation and direct entitlements are the strongest predictors of famine.

Udy divides methods of work organization into 'production determined', 'technologically determined', 'socially determined', and 'pluralistic' types, and examines their prevalence across societies with varying subsistence activities and levels of social and political stratification. Special attention is paid to processes of integration and differentiation and their role in effecting transitions between organization types.

Using empirical data and statistical methodology, Gouldner and Peterson aim to identify fundamental dimensions across societies, examine the relationships among these dimensions, and evaluate their importance. Data analysis is largely based on factor analysis, and the authors discuss how statistical methods fit into functional social theory.

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 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.