This book chapter (4) follows up suggestions from a previous chapter (3) by McClelland et.al. that in non-solidary societies heavy drinking is associated with conflict about personal power and alcohol provides a way of acting out impulses aimed at impacting others. Support was found for this theory using an analysis of words in folktales.

The authors design and implement two tasks requiring linguistic and non-linguistic spatial reference across a linguistically-diverse sample in order to examine the relationship between language and cognition cross-culturally. The results, which indicate large conceptual variation in frame of spatial reference across as well as strong correlation between use of absolute descriptors and absolute cognitive representations within language communities, suggest that language structure may actively shape the systems of spatial representation available to different cultural groups.

This article examines whether intergenerational wealth transmission perpetuates inequality among hunter-gatherers. The authors consider three types of wealth: embodied, material, and relational. Empirical analysis of wealth transmission in five cultures suggests that, in many cases, a parent’s wealth is associated with a child’s life chances. Gini coefficients suggest that hunter-gatherer cultures have low to moderate wealth inequality overall: very low by current world standards but not non-existent.

This is an exploratory study comparing disaster exposure to the presence of exclusionary and corporate political leadership spanning over a 25-year focal period within each of 26 societies. Exclusionary political strategies involves the exclusion of individuals from organized societal benefits based on their relationship with the leader and the tendency to rely heavily on outside alliances for resources. Corporate political strategy tends to seek solutions from within the society and place more emphasis on collectivism. The authors' found support for their hypothesis that increased food-destroying disasters will predict with increased exclusionary leadership presence. These preliminary findings are consistent with previous research on the political adaptation during food-destroying events and the authors hope to continue to expand upon this topic.

This article used sub-national, historical and cross-country data to examine if exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UV-R) could be a factor in the formation of individualism and collectivism. The study found support, across all data sets, that increased exposure to UV-R is associated to more collectivism within a culture. The authors theorized that UV-R exposure increases the likelihood of eye disease causing higher rates of blindness. With increased levels of blindness, the more emphasis there will be on close family relations and/or increased uncertainty avoidance from out-groups leading to more collectivism in a culture.

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 refines previous research on marriage transactions and offers descriptions of new types of marriage transactions. First, the authors examine the frequency and distribution of marriage transactions. Second,the authors use a bio-cultural approach to examine how differences in male and female reproductive strategies and the kin selection theory are associated with marriage transactions.

Using an evolutionary perspective, this study tests hypotheses relating gender and kinship roles to the amount of direct and indirect care provided during and around childbirth. The roles of paternal certainty, residence rules and descent groups are also examined.

The effect of female status on women's mate preference in a sample of nonindustrial societies is examined.

This study examines ecological, social, and psychological theories for men's fear of heterosexual sex in a cross-cultural sample. Findings support the hypotheses and a causal model is presented.