This article examines predictors of intimacy between husbands and wives. Emphasis is on equality of spouses. A causal model is presented.

Based on work by Rosenblatt (1966), this article tests a hypothesis relating sexual freedom to romantic love. Findings suggest a relationship between premarital and extramarital sexual permissiveness equality for women and men and romantic love.

Previous cross-cultural studies of romantic love have, in the authors' view, been plagued by vague definitions of the concept and a conflation of cultural, bio-psychological, and social factors. Thus, the authors distinguish between the social aspect of romantic love (which they argue is a universal human predisposition) and the variable cultural valuation of romance. In a large cross-cultural sample, the authors test the hypotheses that gender equality and family organization are important predictors of the cultural valuation of romantic love.

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.

"Seven of Max Weber's ideal-typical specifications for 'rational bureaucracy' are reformulated as a system of three 'bureaucratic' and four 'rational' variables. It is proposed that (a) bureaucratic variables are positively associated; (b) rational variables are positively associated; but that (c) rational variables are negatively associated with bureaucratic variables." Hypotheses are supported.

This article tests the assumption that foragers are more likely to experience regular and severe food shortages than sedentary agriculturalists. The results indicate that there is no statistical difference in the quantity of available food or the frequency or extent of food shortages between preindustrial foragers, recent foragers, and agriculturalists.

This study exmaines the presence of High Gods in societies as a function of subsistence type, population size, and stratification. High Gods are thought to be a mechanism to encourage collective action in the face of environmental challenges. Animal husbandry was found to be a strong predictor of High Gods, especially gods that are active in human affairs or morally supportive.

Authors explore the relationship between privacy among newlywed couples and romantic love as a basis for marriage. Authors also consider the relationship between newlywed privacy and kin avoidence. Both associations are found to be statistically significant.

This article proposes that ground plans may be used as a criterion for determining the relative permanence of settlement patterns in archaelogical societies. Results suggest that impermanent settlements and small community size are significantly associated with circular ground plans and that permanent settlements with larger community sizes are significantly associated with rectangular ground plans.

This article explores the relationship between marital residence and romantic love; results suggest that romantic love is most important in societies with non-neolocal marital residence. The author explores potential functions of romantic love, including bolstering against the divisive pressure of relatives, or to substitute for economic interdependence between spouses.