This study retests the work by Ember, Ember and Low (2007) on male mortality and pathogen stress as predictors of nonsororal polygyny. The authors argue that the work of Ember, Ember, and Low is biased because it does not include a variable for cultural trait transmission. Restesting the original Ember, Ember and Low data, including a variable for cultural trait transmission, authors find that male mortality and pathogen stress loose their significance and cultural trait transmission is the only significant predictor of nonsororal polygyny.

This article tests a myriad of factors that may have contributed to the adoption of monogamy in preindustrial societies. Results indicate that monogamy is not imposed by elites; rather, it is a strategy often chosen by women who can see no advantage to increasing the size or economic productivity of their households with more wives. The authors also assert that monogamy is generally adopted through cultural diffusion. Low pathogen stress, low risk of famine, and low endemic violence are also correlated with monogamy.

This study uses four widely discussed hypotheses regarding the relationship between agricultural intensification and craft specialization to develop a non-recursive model. Authors test the model on both worldwide and regional subsamples. Results show support for a hypothesis proposing a feedback relationship between increasingly productive agricultural systems and the division of labor into nonagricultural craft specialties.

This study examined the relationship between market integration and generalized prosocial behavior. The authors review theory suggesting that market integration fosters cooperation and fairness in dealing with strangers, and they investigate whether child training for generosity, honesty, and trust are associated with level of market integration among societies in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample. Results do not indicate an association.

The authors develop and empirically test a model in which exogamy is negatively predicted by community size, due to decreasing heterogeneity from endogenous marriages in small settlements, and positively predicted by disparity in productivity between communities which is 'smoothed out' by transfer of community members through exogamous marriages. Support for both predictions is found, which is used to argue that cultural traits like marriage customs are heavily influenced by population-environment relationships.

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).

This article uses the Standard Cross-Cultural Samples to test the relationship between disease and economic growth among sub-Saharan African societies. The authors suggest that a higher disease prevalence limits social integration and economic development since pre-colonial times. The variable measuring economic growth is the complexity of large or impressive structures. The hypotheses are that 1) pathogen stress is negatively correlated to the presence of complex buildings, and 2) pathogen stress is positively correlated to increased ethnic diversity. The results support both hypotheses, and there are additional results, like 1) the negative correlation between pathogen stress and current income per capita and 2) the negative correlation between the increased ethnic diversity and current income per capita. Overall, this article shows the robust relationship between disease and economic development.

This study relates the type of games present in a society to the level of cultural complexity. Authors use a "game-type combination scale" that categorizes societies as having: 1) games of physical skill only; 2) games of physical skill and games of chance; and 3) games of physical skill, games of chance, and games of strategy. Results show a relationship between the game-type combination scale and indicators of cultural complexity.

This article considers the consequences of modernization. Factor analysis is used to identify four stages of modernization: 1) changes in education, government, and trade; 2) changes in health, technology, and transportation; 3) changes in family, religion, and toilet; and 4) changes in behavior. The authors then consider five trends they expect to be associated with modernization and test whether they develop over the course of the four stages. Results indicate that these 5 trends—increased cultural complexity, female status, pacification, suicide, and social stress—are associated with only the first and fourth stages.