This paper is an investigation into the relationship between social differentiation as a proxy for societal 'development' and various categories of crime. A positive relationship is interpreted by the author as empirical cross-cultural support for Durkheim's theory that these two factors will increase together as parallel processes of 'sociocultural evolution'.

Thi study tests a hypothesis on the relationship between frequency of warfare and sociocultural development.

This article presents a theory of evolutionary development of incest regulation, namely that as societal complexity increases the incest taboo will become less extensive. The author presents empirical support for this theory, though the association is not supported among simply structured societies. The role of descent type is also discussed.

The authors examine correlations between slavery and variables that can potentially be detected archaeologically. The authors do not test specific hypotheses, but aim to explore the variables in a broader sense. As such, the authors use a grounded theory approach to data analysis in order to examine trends that emerge from the data itself.

The article discusses the importance of incorporating local knowledge and strategies into sustainable climate change adaptation. The authors examined 90 societies from the ethnographic record to document the coping mechanisms and contingency plans used by societies around the world in response to natural hazards. They classified coping mechanisms into four types: technological, subsistence, economic, and religious. The study finds that most societies employ multiple types of coping mechanisms and that technological coping mechanisms are most common in response to fast-onset hazards, while religious coping mechanisms are most common in response to slow-onset hazards. The study also finds that religious and nonreligious coping strategies are not mutually exclusive and are often used in conjunction with each other.

In "The Urban Revolution" (1950), V. Gordan Childe hypothesized ten traits of civilization: urban centers, occupational specialization, monumental buildings, taxation by and/or tribute to elite, isolation of ruling group(s), writing, art, long-distance trade, social solidarity reinforced through common ideologies, and state formation. The author of this study analyzes these traits, and in particular, the presence of written language, with data from two different databases, one ethnographic and one archaeological. He finds that written language is highly correlated with the other traits of civilization as hypothesized by V. Gordan Childe.

This study takes an economic approach in examining the practice of human sacrifice as it relates to notions of the economic value of human life. Codes are included.

This chapter investigates the various socioeconomic variables that are associated with matrilineal and patrilineal institutions. Several variables were found to correlate significantly with matrilineal and patrilineal institutions.

This article aims to answer the question: Does the imagery of composite beings, also known as monsters, appear cross-culturally? The authors use the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample to test whether these mythical figures are universal and which sociocultural variables might be related to their presence or absence. To do so, they use the ten measures of cultural complexity by Murdock and Provost (1973): writing and records, fixity of residence, agriculture, urbanization, technological specialization, land transport, money, density of population, level of political integration, and social stratification. The results show that the concept of "monsters" is common among cultures, but not universal. Additionally, the presence of composite beings is related to all the measures of cultural complexity. Finally, the authors wanted to test which variables are more relevant. They use a machine learning method (decision trees and random forests), which suggests that the most important variables are social stratification and higher inter-group contact facilitated by land vehicles.

This study presents a theory of land inheritance that "focuses on the incentives that land inheritence rules create for potential heirs" and tests this theory on a cross-cultural sample.