This article investigates which sexual behaviors are tabued (tabooed) and the frequency and severity of their punishments. Results indicate that incest, abduction, and rape are more frequently tabued, and that frequent tabuing is associated with more severe punishment. Human and supernatural agency in punishment is also examined.

In this article, the authors reevaluate Carneiro's (1970) circumscription theory of state formation. They do this by examining relationships between the degree of political hierarchy and whether warfare is conducted for conquest, land acquisition, or plunder. While they find evidence that this theory is plausible in some situations, there is not enough to support the theory wholesale. Thus, they suggest that other theories of state formation should be investigated.

The authors implement an anthropological approach to explore the evolutionary and cultural explanations of modern obesity. Three widely accepted facts are considered: (1) gender dimorphism (women having higher levels of fat), (2) increase of obesity with modernization, and (3) a positive association between obesity and socioeconomic status. Using theory, cross-cultural research, and case studies, the authors hypothesize how obesity may have been selected for (or not selected against) in an evolutionary context considering both biological and social factors.

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.

This study relates the type of games present in a society to the level of cultural complexity. Authors use a "game-type combination scale" that categorizes societies as having: 1) games of physical skill only; 2) games of physical skill and games of chance; and 3) games of physical skill, games of chance, and games of strategy. Results show a relationship between the game-type combination scale and indicators of cultural complexity.

This article investigates a cultural patterning of altered states of consciousness. The authors use an ordinal variable for a society's trance type; its four levels are 1) trance, 2) trance and possession trance, 3) possession trance, and 4) neither type. Results suggest that trance type is associated with measures of societal complexity and subsistence economy. Regional differences and the effects of diffusion are also examined.