This study analyzes cultural trait transmission among a sample of 172 Western North American Indian societies. The authors use autologistic models built upon spatial and linguistic neighbor graphs to examine the importance of vertical versus horizontal trait transmission. Findings suggest that cultural trait distributions cannot be explained by the transmission of traits from parent to daughter populations and are better analyzed using phylogenies. Authors also show that vertical and horizontal transmission can be incorporated in a single model and may both act upon a single trait. Analysis of only one type of cultural transmission would result in a loss of information.

Researchers looked at 180 of the 186 societies in the SCCS for changes over time in lineage systems. The goal was to estimate the frequency of transitions away from and to matriliny cross-culturally, as well as explore the potential causes of these patterns / transitions. The study focused on two overarching research questions: 1. How common are transitions away from matriliny and how often do ‘reverse transitions’ to matriliny occur? 2. What causes transitions to or from matriliny? Overall, the study found that transitions away from matriliny have been quite common within the time frames covered by the ethnographic samples available, while transitions from another system to matrility have been rare. In answering the second question, the researchers report the highest correlation is between subsistence transitions (towards pastoralism, intensive agriculture, or a market economy) and lineage transitions (away from matriliny) as well as between higher levels of social complexity (measured by stratification, slavery, and population size) and lineage transitions (away from matriliny).

A test of theory that gender assigned to animal characters in folklore will be associated with character traits based on gender status. Post facto theory for findings is presented.

This chapter examines the relationship between male parental behavior and influences of species, ecological and social factors. The authors first present a cross-phylogenetic perspective on paternal differences between species, then offer two quantitative studies: a comparative study of non-western human societies that correlates father-infant proximity with socioecological factors and another about father-infant proximity among the !Kung.

In this article, the researcher aims to test the usefulness of grid/group theory, developed by anthropologist Mary Douglas, for cross-cultural research. The article utilizes principal component factor analysis on grid/group indicators to test if "grid" and "group" can be considered as sufficiently independent factors, and thus useful for quantitative cross-cultural research.

This study is a comprehensive analysis of female and male genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C and MGM/C) practices, including their history and socio-ecological correlates, using a phylogenetic cross-cultural framework. It employed two global ethnographic samples, the Ethnographic Atlas (EA) and the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS), and two subsets of the phylogeny (supertree) of human populations based on genetic and linguistic data, to investigate the variables that may have led to the introduction of these practices, and to determine where and when they may have originated. The study suggests that MGM/C probably originated in polygynous societies with separate residence for co-wives, supporting a mate-guarding function, and that FGM/C likely originated subsequently and almost exclusively in societies already practicing MGM/C, where it may have become a signal of chastity. Both practices are believed to have originated multiple times, some as early as in the mid-Holocene (5,000–7,000 years ago). The study posits that GM/C co-evolves with and may help maintain fundamental social structures and that the high fitness costs of FGM/C are offset by social benefits, such as enhanced marriageability and social capital.

This article examines the conditions under which slavery occurs in preindustrial societies. Results suggest that social stratification and the existence of open resources are both necessary conditions for the occurrence of slavery.

"Seven of Max Weber's ideal-typical specifications for 'rational bureaucracy' are reformulated as a system of three 'bureaucratic' and four 'rational' variables. It is proposed that (a) bureaucratic variables are positively associated; (b) rational variables are positively associated; but that (c) rational variables are negatively associated with bureaucratic variables." Hypotheses are supported.

This article tests the assumption that foragers are more likely to experience regular and severe food shortages than sedentary agriculturalists. The results indicate that there is no statistical difference in the quantity of available food or the frequency or extent of food shortages between preindustrial foragers, recent foragers, and agriculturalists.

This article examines predictors of intimacy between husbands and wives. Emphasis is on equality of spouses. A causal model is presented.