This study tests the validity of two previous diachronic studies examining the relationship between subsistence strategy and sexual dimorphism of stature with synchronic data. The authors find that neither hypothesis is valid.

This article examines the relationship between sexual dimorphism of stature and latitude; data support the association. The authors also find support for an association between latitude and human marriage systems, a variable proposed by Alexander (1979) to explain variation in sexual dimorphism of stature. When societies are categorized by latitude, the relationships between marriage systems and sexual dimorphism do not reach significance. Overall the authors emphasize the influence of environmental adaptation on sexual dimorphism rather than an explanation solely focused on male-male competition.

This article examines height and sexual dimorphism of stature from a sociobiological perspective. Diet, child rearing, and marriage practices are tested as possible factors contributing to height sexual dimorphism of stature. Results provide some support for a nutritional hypotheses, but sexual selection and parental investment are not statistically significant.

This comment suggests methodological flaws in Gaulin and Schlegel’s (1980) article on male parental certainty and investment practices. The authors take issue with multiple coding decisions and suggest that the findings from the 1980 study ought to be rejected; data does not support a positive association between male parental certainty and investment practices.

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.