Acerbi, Kendal, and Tehrani examine the relationship between population size and cultural complexity as measured by a non-technological cultural domain: folktales. Three measures of complexity for folktales are analyzed, 1) number of tale types, 2) number of narrative motifs, and 3) number of traits in variants of two international folktales. Findings suggest that the relationship between cultural complexity and population may depend on the domain, as different domains vary in cultural maintenance and transmission.

The researchers examine Boserup's (1970) theory that variation in traditional agricultural practices shape gender roles by examining the relationship between historical plough use and contemporary fertility rates and preferential attitudes towards fertility. Contrary to expectation, tests show a negative relationship between plough use and both of these variables. The authors theorize that since children are less capable of performing the intensive labor required by plough agriculture compared to hoe agriculture, adoption of the plough deincentivized increased fertility and reduced its value among agriculturalists.

There is considerable variation both within and across societies in attitudes towards female employment outside of the household. In some societies, the dominant belief is that women should have equal opportunity to work outside the home, while in others women are strongly discouraged from working outside of the domestic sphere. Here the authors use pre-industrial ethnographic data and contemporary observations of gender inequality to test the hypothesis that cultural attitudes regarding the appropriateness of women working outside of the household are rooted in the ancestral adoption of plough cultivation. Contemporary measures of gender inequality assess variation across countries, ethnic groups, and individuals.

This study investigates the relationship between historical utilization of the plow and modern sex ratios. The authors argue that in societies without the plow subsistence is generally egalitarian with both men and women contributing. However, the use of the plow requires more physical strength which, they argue, leads to a preference for boys and, thus, men. Therefore, in cultures that use the plow, this is reflected in male-biased sex ratios which are negotiated by way of practices like sex-selective abortions, infanticide, and/or differential access to resources based on sex.

The authors of this study investigate both intimate partner violence (IPV) in Africa and tolerance towards it. Merging Demographic and Health Survey data with information from the Ethnographic Atlas, they take into account a wide range of ancestral characteristics that could influence domestic violence today, including precolonial economic roles and marriage traditions. Their findings indicate that societies in which men were dominant in subsistence and/or had androcentric marital practices have more IPV today, and more acceptance of it. They also find an interesting gender gap in acceptance of IPV, in which women are more likely than men to justify domestic violence.

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 article examines the homoarchical custom of hereditary community leadership. Four predictors are identified: (1) permission of premarital heterosexual intercourse by females, (2) small community population, (3) multiple social classes or castes, and (4) praying or violence as a component of community ceremonies. Log linear analysis shows all but the third are significantly associated with hereditary community leadership.

The link between wartime violence and social complexity has been debated through a variety of lenses. Using a cross-cultural sample, this researcher finds no evidence for increased or decreased indiscriminate killing as a result of social complexity. In this study, war is defined as “lethal violence between social groups” (2). While there was no relationship between these variables, this researcher suggests a potential link between territorial/political expansion and indiscriminate killing.