This study explores why initiation rites for girls are observed in some societies and absent in others. Further, the author seeks to understand cross-cultural variation in the rites.

This article discusses initiation rites for girls. Specifically explored are the reasons why the ceremonies are observed in some societies and omitted in others and what the variations between societies demonstrates.

A study of the relationship between older women and their young female kin. Relationships between women's relationships with their mother-in-laws and subsistence contribution, residence, descent, and food preparation are examined. Findings offer significant support for patterns in the relationship between older women and younger female kin.

This article identifies several methodological errors in the original study or moralizing gods by Roes and Raymond (2003) and presents new multiple regression model. Results suggest that a belief in moralizing gods is spread though cultural transmission, but it is also associated with conditions such as lower agricultural potential and lower external warfare. The authors theorize that moralizing gods have functional purposes such as bolstering property rights or maintaining social hierarchy.

This paper explores sex differences in socialization for boys and girls after describing the worldwide distribution of sex differences in five aspects of socialization; the authors explore conditions that may produce larger differences.

This article uses factor analysis to identify the key variables underlying the many cross-cultural associations reported by Textor (1967). Twelve factors are identified.

The purpose of the present study is to provide insight on the debate concerning how best to organize societies: with more freedom (looseness) or with more constraint (tightness). In a comparison of 32 nations, Harrington, Boski, and Gelfand examine the relationship between tightness/looseness and three dimensions of societal well-being: psychosocial, health, and political/economic outcomes. Findings indicate that excessive constraint and/or freedom contribute to poorer psychosocial, health, and economic/political outcomes, as well as overall national-level well-being. These results suggest that a balance of freedom and constraint is associated with optimal societal well-being.

Cultures vary widely in regards to beauty standards for female body fat: while industrialized nations typically prefer thinness in women, ethnographic reports indicate that plumpness is valued in many small-scale societies. Here the authors evaluate several hypotheses that relate variation in female body fat preference to variation in socioecology such as food storage, climate, male social dominance, valuation and restriction of women's work, and female stress during adolescence.

This book discusses the characteristics of adolescence cross-culturally and examines the differences in the adolescent experience for males and females. Several relationships are tested in order to gain an understanding of cross-cultural patterns in adolescence.

This article uses ethnographic reports on a world wide sample of societies for rating frequency of participation by children in adult activities and degree of permissive treatment of children.