The researchers examine associations between male status and various measures of reproductive success among foraging/non-foraging, and monogamous/polygynous societies in order to test the "egalitarian hypothesis" which predicts lower status effects in hunter-gatherer groups. Contrary to this hypothesis, they find that male social status is equally significantly associated with reproductive success in foraging and nonforaging societies. Additional support is found for the "mating effort" hypothesis, which predicts that male reproductive success will be more associated with fertility than offspring mortality in polygynous societies, leading the authors to make various suggestions regarding the evolutionary mechanisms at play.

Ikat and warp weaving techniques have a long history in Southeastern Asia and tend to be the most geographically widespread in the region. This researcher uses Bayesian and Neighbornet techniques to create models of phylogenetic descent and distribution of SE Asian weaving traditions. These findings do not support the theory of late Bronze Age Dong-Son descent.

Languages and weaving methods are passed down generation to generation, allowing both of them to have relatively clear phylogenies. These researchers use a Bayesian approach with Markov chain Monte Carlo methods to uncover similar but independent phylogenies for Kra-Dai languages and weaving technologies. Evolutionary differences between the two are most likely due to different rates of change: smooth change (language) and periods of burst and stasis (weaving). This study found that language phylogenies were not efficient at predicting phylogenies of technologies.

This article examines the "sexual conflict" hypothesis which predicts that male genital mutilation should be associated with polygyny and a reduction in the frequency of extramarital sex. Male genital mutilation (MGM) rituals should be highly public and facilitate access to social benefits. Support for these assumptions is provided.

The researchers test the relationship between global mandibular morphology variation and susbsistence economy, population history, geography, and climate. While some mandibular variation is significantly correlated with geography, the most significant relationship is with subsistence activity. The strength of the relationship leads the authors to speculate on how masticatory behavior might have affected jaw shape, either through stress, weaning behavior, or other demographic 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.

This article examines marital residence and sibling coresidence among horticulturalists in the South American lowlands. The authors reject a hypothesis that patrilocality is the defining trait of Amazonian tropical forest culture. Results on horticulturalists are compared with findings on hunter-gatherers: horticulturalists tend to be more uxorilocal. Empirical analysis also suggests that women tend to live with more kin later in life, and in large villages headmen live with more kin than nonheadmen.

Why do researchers see cross-cultural variations in the use of mental states during moral judgements? These researchers examined the relationship between this use and kinship intensity which has previously only been used for WEIRD (Western, Educated, Rich, & Democratic (WEIRD) societies. Although their data set was fairly small, their findings outline promising avenues of future investigations and hint toward a significant negative relationship. This article also identifies additional independent variables to be investigated more in depth in the future.

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 explains the variation in inequality using a model in which a population's inequality depends on the extent to which its most important forms of wealth are transmitted within families across generations. Results suggest that economic systems differ substantially in the intergenerational transmission of wealth.