This study empirically tests Durkheim’s theories of punishment in a sample of preindustrial societies. Analysis shows little support for five hypotheses derived from Durkheim’s theories. Findings indicate that in preindustrial societies, the intensity of punishment is associated with political integration, there are fewer collective definitions of crime, there is a higher likelihood of using material sanctions; additionally, slavery is likely to be an institutionalized means of punishment in societies with harsher sanctions.

By testing relationships between musical, geographic, genetic, and linguistic distance among nine indigenous groups in Taiwan, the researchers aim to quantitatively evaluate a developing theory of coevolution between these traits. An especially strong correlation between musical variability and genetic distance suggests that music may possess worldwide time depth, diversity, and universality equal to or greater than that of language, and could thus serve as a complementary marker for reconstruction of long-term population shifts.

Using ethnographic reports from the Human Relations Area Files in conjunction with national agricultural censuses, this study outlines the importance of cassava across Africa, especially in famine prevention and food security.

This exploratory study seeks to explain cassava production and processing in Africa by considering cultural, agronomic, and environmental data. After examining the descriptive results of the agricultural and social contexts of cassava use, the authors build upon Boserup's population density model (1965) to analyze their own hypothesized model of cassava's importance among the sampled societies.

In this paper, the authors argue against the findings presented in Hay & Bauer (2007) which suggest a positive correlation between population size and phoneme inventory size in languages. In order to do so, they highlight some methodological issues in the previous study, as well as other studies addressing similar questions. To address these issues, the authors conducted their own study using a larger and more representative sample of phoneme inventories drawn from the PHOIBLE knowledge base, and applied a more rigorous statistical analysis using a hierarchical mixed model. The results indicate that correlations between population size and phoneme inventory size are quite small when compared to differences among language family groups, and that the phoneme-population relationship fluctuates around zero between families, suggesting that any relationship between population and phoneme inventory size does not generalize to language as a whole. The author concludes that the correlations seen between population and phoneme inventories are likely to be artifacts, and do not find compelling reason to consider population size as a potential causal factor in the development of phonological systems.

This study focuses on the relationship between pathogen prevalence and mate selection. Results show that increased pathogen prevalence is significantly associated with an increased importance in the physical attractiveness of potential mates.

Using paternal investment theory, the authors examine the relationship between paternal confidence and paternal investment in humans.

This study tests possible explanations for sexual dimorphism in human post-reproductive life-spans. The author focuses on explanations involving male paternal investment and finds that men in agricultural societies are more likely to invest in their offspring than men in hunter-gatherer societies.

This study retests data on sexual dimorphism of body size from the Wolfe and Gray (1982) study. The authors challenge previous explanations for variation in sexual dimorphism across cultures. They find that there is a consistent level of sexual dimorphism across cultures, regardless of cultural traits or average body size.

This study tests two models that predict the presence of dowry cross-culturally: the female competition model and the labor-value model. Results suggest that both models are predictive of dowry, however discriminant analysis finds the female competition model to be superior.