This paper tests theory suggesting that art is a form of expressive cultures which ultimately is shaped by the social conditions under which people in a society live. Focuses on social hierarchy and its relationship to art styles.

Child-rearing practices are tested for a relationship to art and music characteristics in a cross-cultural sample.

This paper suggests that Fischer's (1961) "male security" variable is not adequate. Cross-cultural analyses suggest that male security in the realm of father-son interaction may be more important than male security in the realm of heterosexual interaction in explaining the line shape preference of a society.

This study tests for a correlation between severity of socialization and style of art among a sample of nonliterate societies. Typical personality is thought to provide an explanation for these linkages.

This study tests Fischer's (1961) cross-cultural hypotheses about the association between social structure and styles of art using formal design elements on painted vases in ancient Greece. Results show support for all of Fischer's hypotheses.

This paper tests for a correlation between primary house shapes and preferences for curved or straight lines in art.

This study replicates John L. Fischer's (1961) cross-cultural analysis to demonstrate the correlation between art styles and social hierarchy and postmarital residence. The author suggests that archaeological ceramics might be used to predict social characteristics of prehistoric societies.

To understand transmission of knowledge and its impact on human evolution history, this study explores the research question: "How do hunter-gatherer children learn subsistence skills?". The authors use meta-ethnography methods on 34 cultures from five continents discussing these topics. The results show that the learning process starts early in infancy when their parents take them to the excursions. In middle childhood, they already acquired gathering skills. Only in the start of adolescence, adults begin teaching how to hunt and to produce complex tools. The learning process continues into adulthood.

This study examines several correlates of the shape of floor plans of dwellings. Authors find that "whether a culture is settled or nomadic, the form of its family and the presence or absence of status distinctions are related to its house type, and the house types can in turn be inferred from the floor plan." Curvilinear houses are associated with polygyny and nomadism and rectilinear houses are associated with sedentarism, extended families, and status distinctions.

This article examines the artistic encouragement of collective action during premodern regime building. No cross-cultural empirical hypotheses are tested, but the author identifies artistic processes that promoted the moral capacity for political commitment in a collective (rather than autocratic) polity.