This study finds that meat taboos are more common than non-meat taboos cross-culturally. Several explanations for meat taboos are discussed. Authors advocate an evolutionary understanding of food taboos.

Pregnancy sickness is characterized by nausea, vomiting, and food aversions during pregnancy, particularly during the first trimester. Previous work has asserted an adaptationist explanation for this phenomenon: pregnancy sickness protects the embryo from the toxic compounds found in many foods via expulsion (i.e., vomiting) of potentially dangerous foods and by encouraging aversions to foods likely to harbor toxins or pathogens. The authors reexamine 27 small-scale societies previously investigated by Minturn and Weiher (1984) for evidence of pregnancy sickness and food aversions in light of the fetal protection hypotheses.

This article proposes that differences in diet may account for the presence or absence of morning sickness in a society. Data suggest that morning sickness is not a universal symptom of pregnancy, and there are significant differences in foods consumed where morning sickness does not occur, including more maize, fats, and vegetables.

This study, primarily a review on the evolution of the human diet, also includes a small study on the distribution of meat-eating and its relationship with climate and cultural factors, namely subsistence type. The authors find that societies with subsistence strategies that prioritize fishing, hunting, or pastoralism also tend to consume more animal products, whereas those that focus on agriculture have more plant-based diets. The authors argue that these small-scale societies have a healthier approach to diet than industrialized societies regardless of their subsistence type or meat consumption.

The author evaluates predictions from the standard model of intensification of food production and suggests it be rejected based on an analysis of 40 societies. The standard model proposes that food producers will increase their energy input until the maximum possible output is achieved, at which point output and labor productivity will fall and producers will invent or adopt new technologies. He then proposes a different model, which he terms the cultural niche construction model. The cultural niche construction model proposes that societies will minimize their energy input while maximizing their returns through continual technological adaptation and niche construction. After predictions from this second model are tested, the author suggests tentatively accepting the cultural niche construction model as a new framework to explain transitions to complex societies.

Researchers used population samples from the ALFRED database and the Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP), in conjunction with 68 populations from the Ethnographic Atlas, in an attempt to identify specific genes involved in human adaptation to environmental stimuli as a result of migration. Specifically, researchers looked at the allele frequencies for four different genes typically associated with varying subsistence forms. These four included the APOE apolipoprotein E gene (lipid transport and regulation of cholesterol), LCT lactase gene (enzyme that decomposes lactose), CCR5 chemokine receptor gene (deletion mutation that decreases immunodeficiency virus propagation), and the ADH1B alcohol dehydrogenase gene (important enzyme for alcohol metabolism). The allele frequencies were then analyzed to distinguish any possible correlation to economic-culture types using a two-sided Spearman Test. Researchers also ran a similar test to analyze allele frequencies and pathogen load, however the majority of the findings were not statistically significant. The findings suggest that there is a definite relationship between the allele frequencies and type of economy of a population.

Authors suggest that in a majority of studied societies, kin of the deceased tend to engage ritually in risky prolonged and intimate preparation behaviors with corpses. This occurs namely in visual exposure and tactile interaction. Authors hypothesize that this extended contact not only allows true confirmation of death (through exposure to many cues), but also facilitates acceleration of a grieving process that returns the bereaved to a normal state of social functioning.

This article posits that nuclear, independent families are more common under certain economic conditions that affect food supply, demand for family labor, physical mobility, and property system. Empirical analysis suggests that nuclear, independent families are associated with hunting and gathering subsistence type and low social stratification.

This study examines the usefulness of three theoretical orientations in explaining sex differences cross-culturally: social constructionism, evolutionary psychology, and the authors’ biosocial theory. The biosocial model is tested in a thorough literature review, and the authors ultimately suggest that the patriarchy and division of labor by gender are due primarily to female reproductive activity and secondarily to male size and strength.

Researchers looked at the meaning of various emotion concepts, 'emotion semantics' in an attempt to determine the patterns and processes behind meaning cross-culturally. They used maps of colexification patterns (where semantically related concepts are named with the same word), adjusted Rand indices (ARIs) which indicated the similarities of two community's network structures, and various psychophysiological dimensions to test relationships and patterns of variability /structure in emotion semantics. These methods shed light on the underlying mechanisms behind emotions, both their words and their meanings in languages across the world. Their findings show substantial difference in language families and relationships between geographic proximity of language families and subsequent variation in emotion colexification tied to an evolutionary relationship, while also finding cultural universals in emotion colexification networks with languages primarily differentiating emotions on the basis of valence and activation.