Authors undertook two studies to investigate the natures of work and play cross-culturally in children ages 6-10. The first study investigated potential variables affecting cross-cultural variation in the degree of children's contribution to economic work. The second study investigated the degree to which (and variables affecting why) forms of child's play reflect economic work and/or adult activities across various cultures.

This study reanalyzes data from a previous study on variations in children's play from the Six Cultures project. Data described four types of play: role play, fantasy play, imaginative play, and creative-constructive play. Results shed light on the interplay between cultural, historial, economic and material conditions on the type and amount of play, as well as gender differences in play.

This article explores factors affecting the status of the elderly, looking particularly at type of family, economy, and wealth transfer.

The article discusses the role of toys and tools in the development of skills and cultural transmission in hunter-gatherer societies. The authors present a cross-cultural inventory of objects made for and by hunter-gatherer children and adolescents, finding that toys and tools were primarily handled outside of explicit pedagogical contexts, and there is little evidence for formalised apprenticeships. The authors suggest that children's self-directed interactions with objects, especially during play, have a critical role in early-age enskillment. Both boys and girls tend to use objects in work and play that emulate the gendered division of labor in their communities, and many objects made by and for children had full-scale counterparts. Finally, the authors argue that the peer group is crucial to skill acquisition in hunter-gatherer societies.

This article explores factors affecting the status of the elderly, looking particularly at type of family, economy, and wealth transfer.

Previous studies have proposed a model of sexual selection that dictates that along with female and male choice, parental choice constitutes a significant sexual selection force in our species. This article aims at examining whether this model can also account for the mating patterns typical of agricultural and pastoral societies. The hypotheses are supported by the results presented.

This study is a comprehensive analysis of female and male genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C and MGM/C) practices, including their history and socio-ecological correlates, using a phylogenetic cross-cultural framework. It employed two global ethnographic samples, the Ethnographic Atlas (EA) and the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS), and two subsets of the phylogeny (supertree) of human populations based on genetic and linguistic data, to investigate the variables that may have led to the introduction of these practices, and to determine where and when they may have originated. The study suggests that MGM/C probably originated in polygynous societies with separate residence for co-wives, supporting a mate-guarding function, and that FGM/C likely originated subsequently and almost exclusively in societies already practicing MGM/C, where it may have become a signal of chastity. Both practices are believed to have originated multiple times, some as early as in the mid-Holocene (5,000–7,000 years ago). The study posits that GM/C co-evolves with and may help maintain fundamental social structures and that the high fitness costs of FGM/C are offset by social benefits, such as enhanced marriageability and social capital.

This study tests possible explanations for sexual dimorphism in human post-reproductive life-spans. The author focuses on explanations involving male paternal investment and finds that men in agricultural societies are more likely to invest in their offspring than men in hunter-gatherer societies.

This article investigates the sexual division of labor between adults and children. Data analysis suggests that children usually perform tasks appropriate for an adult of the same gender, but boys will often perform women’s tasks while girls generally do not perform men’s tasks. Thus, women tend to benefit more from children’s labor.

The study is about matrilineal systems, where descent is traced along female lines. Matrilineal systems are relatively rare in human populations, and previous research has discussed the rarity and apparent instability of matriliny. The study aims to study the evolution of descent systems on a worldwide scale. The study tests for significant associations between matriliny and numerous cultural traits that have been theoretically associated with its stability or loss, such as subsistence strategy, animal domestication, mating system, residence pattern, wealth transfer, and property succession. Additionally, by combining genetic and linguistic information to build a global supertree that includes 16 matrilineal populations, the study also performs phylogenetically controlled analyses to assess the patterns of correlated evolution between descent and other traits.