Textor summarizes cross-cultural findings on societies where subsistence is primarily by 'food gathering' which includes hunting, fishing, and gathering.

The authors present a bioeconomic model of hunter-gatherer foraging effort to quantitatively represent forager intensification. Using cross-cultural data, the model is evaluated as a means to better understand variation in residential stability and resource ownership.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze thesubsistence activities of the Kung Bushmen. These activities are then used as a benchmark for comparing other hunting and gathering societies. A cross-cultural analysis asks: To what extent are the Bushmen typeical of hunter-gatherers in general? Finding suggets that, as a less reliable subsistence source, hunting is only used as the primarily subsistence strategy when there is no alternative viable subsistence strategy. Findings also suggest that hunting is the dominant mode of subsistence only in the highest latitudes.

In this study, the authors analyze subsistence economies to better understand their variability and success, the role of the environment in different subsistence choices, and the relevance of fishing, specifically in mixed economies. They find regular subsistence patterns, suggesting that not all subsistence combinations are successful. Their findings also indicate that environment influences subsistence choice, mixed economies are common, and that fishing plays a key role in mixed economies.

Researchers investigated the variation of land tenure systems across forager societies using the economic defensibility model. The study attempted to explain the variation in tenure systems across 30 hunter-gatherer societies. Using data on defense and sharing of resources among groups, and indicators of resource density, resource predictability, and competition for resources, the researchers were unable to explain the variation. This study highlights the vast range of diversity and complexity of foragers subsistence strategies, and proposes that it may be more telling to conceptualize tenure systems among hunter-gatherer societies as assemblages of multiple property regimes. While there was no overall evidence that environmental variables of resource density and predictability explain variation in tenure systems, researchers did find that increasing population density, and greater competition for resources leads to greater territoriality.

Using data on 25 ethnolinguistic groups in the Austronesian language family, this study asks: does cooperation in games vary with socio-ecological differences across cultural groups? The authors suggest that cultural groups that cooperate in subsistence, tend to have intergroup conflict and less intragroup conflict, and are less socially stratified are more likely to play cooperative games compared to other groups. While the results support the first three hypotheses, there is insufficient data to support the fourth. The authors conclude that games serve as training ground for group norms and values.

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.

This study explores the research question: What socio-ecological factors are conducive to women’s hunting? Using life history theory and behavioral ecology as a base, the authors pose four hypotheses. The first hypothesis is that women will hunt when there are fewer conflicts with childcare. The second hypothesis is that women will hunt when there are fewer cultural restrictions regarding the use of hunting technology. The third hypothesis is that women will hunt when there are low-risk game within range of camp, dogs are used in hunting, or hunting is in groups. Lastly, the fourth hypothesis suggests that women will hunt when they play essential roles on informational tasks. There is enough evidence to support the third and fourth hypotheses. The study also shows that there is considerable evidence that women hunt cross-culturally.

The complex set of beliefs and practices in which the cult of the guardian spirit consisted is examined.

This article explores the relationships between habitat and social organization among humans and other species. Diet, technology, group size, home range, mobility, kinship, marital residence, sexual division of labor, mating system, central places, food sharing, and egalitarianism are all considered.