This book chapter tests new and pre-existing theories (Horton, Field, Bacon et al.) for the cause of variation in drinking across cultures. Folktale content is used to test psychological variables more directly than has been done previously. Folktale content is analyzed programmatically with an acknowledged error level of up to one-third. Results lend support to Field's 1962 theory that loose social organization facilitates drinking.

This book chapter (4) follows up suggestions from a previous chapter (3) by McClelland et.al. that in non-solidary societies heavy drinking is associated with conflict about personal power and alcohol provides a way of acting out impulses aimed at impacting others. Support was found for this theory using an analysis of words in folktales.

This study examines aggression in folktales in relation to child socialization variables. The author suggests that punishment for aggression and aggression anxiety are related to how aggression is portrayed in folktales. Hypotheses are supported.

This study examines sex differences in alcohol consumption, suggesting that they are related to a nomadic or rural settlement, low accumulation of food resources, and strong child training pressure toward achievement. The authors suggest that societal norms often limit drunkenness in women because women's responsibilities (such as childcare) would deter incapacity due to intoxication.

This study investigates possible relationships between the need for achievement and power (as measured in folktales) with rates of suicide and homicide in preindustrial societies. Analysis suggests that homicide is not associated with either the need for achievement or power, but suicide is positively associated with the need for power.

Factor analysis is employed to examine variables related to alcohol consumption. Hypotheses related to the integration of drinking, inebriety, aggression while intoxicated, and quantity of drinking are examined.

Acerbi, Kendal, and Tehrani examine the relationship between population size and cultural complexity as measured by a non-technological cultural domain: folktales. Three measures of complexity for folktales are analyzed, 1) number of tale types, 2) number of narrative motifs, and 3) number of traits in variants of two international folktales. Findings suggest that the relationship between cultural complexity and population may depend on the domain, as different domains vary in cultural maintenance and transmission.

This study investigates the strategic mode of competition in both games of strategy and folk talkes. Various significant relationships between games of strategy, folktales, social complexity, and child rearing variables are observed.

This study tests cross-cultural hypotheses that predict the variables that lead to drunkenness. Previous hypotheses are reviewed and retested and control tests attempt to ascertain the adequacy of the cross-cultural method.

This study examines a hypothesis that ceremonial drinking is negatively associated with heavy secular drinking. Empirical analysis does not support this association, and the author proposes an alternative theory of alcohol consumption and the problem of evil. Hypotheses relating alcohol consumption to menstrual taboos and the uses of blood in society are supported.