Researchers looked at the meaning of various emotion concepts, 'emotion semantics' in an attempt to determine the patterns and processes behind meaning cross-culturally. They used maps of colexification patterns (where semantically related concepts are named with the same word), adjusted Rand indices (ARIs) which indicated the similarities of two community's network structures, and various psychophysiological dimensions to test relationships and patterns of variability /structure in emotion semantics. These methods shed light on the underlying mechanisms behind emotions, both their words and their meanings in languages across the world. Their findings show substantial difference in language families and relationships between geographic proximity of language families and subsequent variation in emotion colexification tied to an evolutionary relationship, while also finding cultural universals in emotion colexification networks with languages primarily differentiating emotions on the basis of valence and activation.

This article builds on previous cross-country and cross-state research into Tightness-Looseness (TL) theory, which proposes relationships between the incidence of ecological threat and cultural tightness, as well as tightness’ downstream effects on belief in a moralizing high god, inter-group contact and authoritarian leadership. To evaluate the generalizability of TL theory beyond complex cultures, the authors test these relationships among 86 nonindustrial societies from the ethnographic record. A structural equation model is presented of the results for nonindustrial societies; it is generally in accord with previous findings from more complex societies. Because the nonindustrial sample is more variable, they also look at relationships between societal complexity and kinship heterogeneity, aspects that vary in nonindustrial societies.

The researchers conducted four studies using multiple methods. All of the studies examined the ways in which conflict may shape religion, and, more specifically whether conflict relates to an increased belief in a punitive god. Study 2 compared individuals from four countries; study 4 used worldwide data. We don't report results from the American sample (study 1) or from study 3. As a result of all four studies, the researchers suggest that since beliefs in punitive gods are better able to preserve order and enforce traditions, they may be particularly attractive during times of conflict.

This book investigates individual and group responses to death and the problems that death can create in a society. Several hypotheses regarding grief and mourning, as well as their variation with other societal variables, are supported with cross-cultural tests.

Using multilevel modeling and society-level regressions as well as mediational path modeling, the authors test two alternative models that consider how resource stress, religious beliefs, and beyond-household food and labor sharing may be related. The resource stress model suggests that high resource stress has two consequences: 1) that such stress may lead to beliefs that gods and spirits are associated with weather and 2) that resource stress leads to more sharing. Furthermore, this model suggests that the relationship between resource stress and sharing is not mediated by god beliefs. The alternative model considered, the moralizing high god model, suggests that resource stress will lead to more sharing but it is mediated by moralizing high gods. Before testing the path models, the authors first consider the relationships between resource stress and beliefs about high gods, superior gods, and minor spirits involvement with weather. Since the results were strongest for high gods, the path models focused on high gods. The results largely support the resource stress model rather than the high god moralizing model.

This study posits that dowry is a recent historical development, and that cultural complexity is a necessary but not sufficient cause for its emergence. Comparisons of frequencies support these claims.

This article investigates bereaved persons’ ways of coping with anger and aggression. Analysis suggests that anger and aggression are reduced in cultures where ritual specialists are involved before and during body disposal. Patterns in customary isolation or marking of bereaved persons are also discussed.

This paper examines death customs meant to break ties with a deceased spouse. The authors propose that remarriage rates are higher where these tie-breaking customs are practiced and that this association is stronger where sororate or levirate remarriage is practiced. Empirical support is found for these hypotheses.

Drawing from previous theories on the cultural variation of depression, this article tested the relationship between 24 sociocultural and ecological factors and the prevalence of depression across 195 countries and territories. The authors first conducted a zero-order association test to find the most contributory factors. Those variables were further tested in a regression model, and controlled for the under-reporting of depression by measuring the number of healthcare workers per capita. The authors found that cultural individualism was the only factor that positively predicted depression prevalence in a multiple regression model.

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.