This article conducts a cross-cultural, comparative review of whether birds are bearers of signs using eHRAF World Cultures and published articles. The researchers first examine whether birds are thought of as signifiers and the mode of sign delivery be it voice, presence, or behavior. They also investigate whether biocultural salience is more indicative of passerines, near-passerines, or non-passerines.

The association between hunting and sign language is examined. It is hypothesized that sign language develops as a form of nonverbal communication to aid hunters in the coordinated stalking of game. Ethnographic evidence supports this hypothesis. A second hypothesis is also tested concerning the relationship between population size and non-verbal communication, however sampling procedures provided an inadequate test of this hypothesis.

The association between hunting and sign language is examined. It is hypothesized that sign language develops as a form of nonverbal communication to aid hunters in the coordinated stalking of game. Ethnographic evidence supports this hypothesis. A second hypothesis is also tested concerning the relationship between population size and non-verbal communication, however sampling procedures provided an inadequate test of this hypothesis.

This article examined the presence of ostensive-communicative behaviors in educational storytelling within foraging cultures. Ostensive communication includes prosody and gestures used to direct attention to something or someone. The author analyzed 14 behaviors of ostensive communication and tested whether they co-occur with the transmission of knowledge in storytelling. All 53 forager cultures examined demonstrated the use of 2 or more of those communicative behaviors in oral storytelling. This supports the author’s claim of ostensive-communicative behavior as a universal pedagogical tool in forager cultures.

The present study explores the cognitive and affective attitudes towards owls in cold-climate and warm-climate societies. In addition, a few hypotheses were tested. Specifically, the research question asks which societies would have greater owl ethnozoological knowledge, functional usage, conception of owls in positive magico-religious terms, and positive supernaturalistic interpretations of owls' behaviors and characteristics. The results offer support for the initial predictions with the exception that cold-climate societies do not have more positive magico-religious conceptions of owls than warm-climate societies.

The present study explores the cognitive and affective attitudes towards owls in cold-climate and warm-climate societies. In addition, a few hypotheses were tested. Specifically, the research question asks which societies would have greater owl ethnozoological knowledge, functional usage, conception of owls in positive magico-religious terms, and positive supernaturalistic interpretations of owls' behaviors and characteristics. The results offer support for the initial predictions with the exception that cold-climate societies do not have more positive magico-religious conceptions of owls than warm-climate societies.

The present study explores the cognitive and affective attitudes towards owls in cold-climate and warm-climate societies. In addition, a few hypotheses were tested. Specifically, the research question asks which societies would have greater owl ethnozoological knowledge, functional usage, conception of owls in positive magico-religious terms, and positive supernaturalistic interpretations of owls' behaviors and characteristics. The results offer support for the initial predictions with the exception that cold-climate societies do not have more positive magico-religious conceptions of owls than warm-climate societies.

This paper examines the relationship between moralizing gods (gods that impose moral rules or punish those who break them) and social complexity. The authors argue that previous research, which relied on the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample's "moralizing high gods" variable as a proxy measure for the presence of moralizing gods, may have underestimated the presence of moralizing gods in societies. This is because the criteria used to define "moralizing high gods" are not relevant to whether a god is moralistic or punitive. The authors argue that this leads to a false positive association between moralizing gods and social complexity, and that ethnographic evidence suggests that moralizing gods are actually more prevalent in small-scale societies than had previously been thought. Future researchers, therefore, need to be careful about making assumptions about the moralizing gods of small scale societies based on "moralizing high gods", and find other ways to identify whether moralizing gods are present.

This article tests a broad hypothesis that slavery is an inevitable stage in society's economic development. The author rejects this hypothesis; he argues that there are two main types of slavery (slaves for economic capital or social capital) and each type has its own set of social and politcal determinants. Overall, the power dynamic between husbands and wives is thought to be a key predictor of slavery.

This study examines relationships among the instruction of children, household type and size, and political integration. Particular attention is paid to type of instruction--whether the instructor is kin or non-kin, and whether the instruction requires a change in the child's residence. Different types of instruction are theorized to solve problems for children in different household types (e.g. children in mother-child households experience gender identity conflict, and so leave their houses for instruction from non-kin). The causality between instruction and societal complexity is also discussed.