This article hypothesizes that ritual ecstasy was selected for as a way for hunter-gatherers to cope with resource uncertainty by unifying separate groups. Results support this hypothesis and suggest a relationship between resource stress and deities as well as dependence on animals and presence of zoomorphic deities.

A materialist approach is used to study the status of women in hunter-gatherer groups. Techno-ecological factors are tested as predictors of women's status.

Researchers examine the ethnographic record, sampling 82 hunter gatherer societies from the HRAF World Cultures database, for cross-cultural patterns of archaeological evidence of knowledge of astronomy and constellations. Surveying the data, researchers identified many patterns in the upper paleolithic, noting the importance of further examination of this topic.

This study builds on a previous study of games by Roberts, Arth and Bush (1959) and offers a conflict interpretation of game involvement. Several significant relationships are observed between game type and child training variables.

Authors investigate the cross-cultural correlates of games of chance. They advance a "conflict-enculturation" model to explain why individuals choose to engage in games of chance in particular (as opposed to games of strategy or physical skill). They suggest that games of chance are linked to cultures with antecedent conflict and/or feelings of powerlessness in the presence of uncertainty; both are psychological stressors whose effects may be assuaged by play with uncertainty models in the form of games of chance.

This study investigates the strategic mode of competition in both games of strategy and folk talkes. Various significant relationships between games of strategy, folktales, social complexity, and child rearing variables are observed.

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 study examines the patterns in associations between cultural traits. Factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analyses were employed to identify various dimensions of culture. Regional patterns and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

This article suggests that societies are not passive receivers of traits, but rather that diffusion is purposive, sensitive to its environmental outcomes and thus influenced by trait content. Findings support this hypothesis.

This article investigates variables related to suicide in preindustrial societies. Bivariate analyses indicate associations between rates of suicide and religion, kinship, political and economic integration, expression of emotions, and importance of pride. Multiple regression identifies three key predictors of suicide: the major economic activity, rules concerning the expression of emotions, and the importance of pride and shame.