Geophagy during pregnancy has been proposed to fulfill a number of adaptive functions, including relieving gastrointestinal distress, detoxification of the secondary compounds found in plant foods, and providing a supplementary source of minerals such as calcium. Using a sample of 60 African populations, the authors investigate geophagy during pregnancy in a cross-cultural perspective, emphasizing variation between dairying and non-dairying populations.

One of the core psychological concepts of early childhood development is mother-infant attachment, an infant's drive to form a bond with one caretaker. John Bowlby identified this form of attachment as a fundamental evolved adaptation, with alternative forms of "insecure" attachment being deviations from the healthy developmental trajectory. In contrast, life-history theory emphasizes that alternative developmental trajectories can be thought of as adaptive strategies which match phenotypes to local conditions, and thus variation in infant attachment may be adaptive under different environmental conditions. Here the authors attempt to investigate whether variation in fertility and mortality rates are significant predictors of variation in infant attachment. However, they do not find enough variation to test their hypotheses since very few societies in the HRAF sample exhibit both low fertility and low mortality.

By better understanding the factors influencing adult height in modern populations, the authors hope to generate a testable hypothesis to determine the factors affecting body size during hominin evolution. The authors employ an exploratory linear regression model to test the effects of mortality, environment, and subsistence strategy on adult height among traditional small scale human societies. They found that mortality rates were the most significant predictor of adult height and that people living in savanna environments are consistently taller.

Drawing from risk sharing theory, this paper used data from 89 countries to examine the relationship between historic rainfall variation (before 1900) and the emergence of collectivism in, assumed to be, preindustrial societies. Contemporary values of individualistic responsibilities were used under the assumption that they will reflect preindustrial values. Findings support the hypothesis that countries with greater rainfall variation will have less individualism than countries with less rainfall variation. The author then examined rainfall variation and individual responsibility as a proposed catalyst for economic development. Support was found that as individualism increased, so did the economic development of a country.

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.

This book chapter tests new and pre-existing theories (Horton, Field, Bacon et al.) for the cause of variation in drinking across cultures. Folktale content is used to test psychological variables more directly than has been done previously. Folktale content is analyzed programmatically with an acknowledged error level of up to one-third. Results lend support to Field's 1962 theory that loose social organization facilitates drinking.

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).

This article examines the different social risk-management strategies (SRMS) used by pastoralists to minimize their exposure to risks that may affect their livelihood. The authors identify a new type of SRMS, noninstitutionalized SRMS, to the two existing types, exchange networks and patron-client relations. A qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is used to identify factors which explain the variation in SRMS: livelihood diversification, economic differentiation, political economy, risk exposure, and key economic animal.

This study explores predictors of variation in two dimensions of marital residence patterns among hunter-gatherers: 1) the tendency toward patrilocality versus matrilocality and 2) the tendency toward unilocality versus bilocality.

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).