In this master's thesis, the author seeks to understand the determinants of attitudes on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). She does this by correlating data on socioeconomic status, age, and education against survey data about IPV attitudes from Demographic and Health Surveys that were conducted in 56 countries across the world. Additionally, for purposes of analysis, she also ran correlations between attitudes and ancestral plow use data some the Ethnographic Atlas as a proxy for the presence of patriarchal norms. Finally, and most uniquely, the author conducted relational analyses between couples in order to gauge how IPV attitudes were influenced by the attitudes of a person's partner. The author concludes with suggestions of how this information can be used by policymakers in order to reduced and ultimately eliminate IPV.

The purpose of the present article is to "reconstruct the prehistoric evolution and dispersal of Polynesian bark cloth (116)" using cladistic phylogenetic methods on ethnographic data. The author intends to shed light on the evolution of this cultural domain, as well as the settlement patterns and the diversification of Polynesian cultures. No hypotheses are explicitly stated or tested, rather, Larsen is concerned with designing the most accurate and reliable reconstructions in order to best conduct analyses and evaluate existing hypotheses. The utility of examining other cultural domains phylogenetically is discussed.

This study replicates John L. Fischer's (1961) cross-cultural analysis to demonstrate the correlation between art styles and social hierarchy and postmarital residence. The author suggests that archaeological ceramics might be used to predict social characteristics of prehistoric societies.

This study asserts that the structure of work organizations is affected more by production techniques than societal complexity. Empirical analysis suggests two trends: 1) production techniques that increase the importance of workers will influence rationality in work organizations, and 2) production techniques that increase the importance of workers and societal complexity will affect the bureaucratic elements of work organizations approximately equally. These findings challenge Udy’s (1970) thesis that complex peasant societies face more challenges than less complex societies in transitioning to modern industrial work forms.

This article compares the relative importance of the sun vs. the moon for a world-wide sample of societies. The contexts in which the sun and the moon are found important are also compared.

This article tests several hypotheses related to the presence or absence of polygyny. Results suggest a negative relationship between polygyny and male provisioning, and positive relationships between polygyny and warfare, interpersonal aggression, and pathogen stress.

An early cross-cultural study that sought to establish correlations between "stages" of economic culture and a variety of different social and political institutions, such as form of government and justice, marriage and kinship, and behaviors during warfare.

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.

This study focuses on predictors of divorce, cross-culturally. Variables measuring infidelity, infertility, personality, economy, kin, absence, health, ritual and politics are tested. An evolutionary/adaptionist approach is found to be most useful in explaining the nature of conjugal dissolution cross-culturally.