The purpose of this paper is to examine female puberty rites and to suggest that such rites may be explained in terms of female physiology, as symbolized, for example, by menstruation.

Focusing on 61 preindustrial societies that have information on fertility, the author asks what factors may explain variation in fertility, what devices are used to control fertility, and whether differences in fertility appear to be in line with the societies' environments.

This book discusses the characteristics of adolescence cross-culturally and examines the differences in the adolescent experience for males and females. Several relationships are tested in order to gain an understanding of cross-cultural patterns in adolescence.

This study uses four widely discussed hypotheses regarding the relationship between agricultural intensification and craft specialization to develop a non-recursive model. Authors test the model on both worldwide and regional subsamples. Results show support for a hypothesis proposing a feedback relationship between increasingly productive agricultural systems and the division of labor into nonagricultural craft specialties.

The purpose of this paper is to examine female puberty rites and to suggest that such rites may be explained in terms of female physiology, as symbolized, for example, by menstruation.

This article tests hypotheses related to kinship terms, cousin marriage, and descent rules. Omaha, Crow, Eskimo, and Iroquois systems are each significantly associated with different kinship rules. Material from Northern Ghana is also considered.