This paper builds on previous Austronesian dispersal research that indicated rituals and social complexity gave rise to each other, by examining if marital residence and initiation rites co-evolved during the dispersal. Using a phylogenetic test and initiation data from 79 societies, the authors found evidence that female and male initiation rites co-evolved during the dispersal and were most stable when both initiation rites were present. The authors also suggest that proto-Austronesian society probably lacked initiation rites and such rites only developed later.

This study challenges an earlier paper's claim that matrilocal residence predicts the development of girls' puberty rites. The author suggests that girls' puberty rites may in fact predate matrilocality in some locations.

Brown's (1963) three hypotheses on female puberty rites were tested. After presenting an adjustment for data quality control, the author demonstrates that Brown's (1963) relationships became insignificant. Female physiology as symbolized by menstruation is suggested as a better predictor for female puberty rites.

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 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 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 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.

Authors investigate the prevalence of male homosexual preference (MHP) cross-culturally. They employ four models to test the link between level of social stratification and the probability of observing male homosexual preference (MHP). Authors believe that this link supports the hypergyny hypothesis, which proposes that increased social stratification allows for some sort of factor that improves functional female fertility, perhaps through marriage to men of higher social classes. This would thereby allow more access to resources and consequently the ability to support a greater number of more reproductively-successful offspring. Authors do not make a causal link, however; rather, social stratification may be associated with a yet-undetermined pleiotropic factor that is somehow positive despite its cost on functional male fertility.

Textor encapsulates cross-cultural findings on marital residence relating to cultural, environmental, psychological, and social phenomena.

The study is about matrilineal systems, where descent is traced along female lines. Matrilineal systems are relatively rare in human populations, and previous research has discussed the rarity and apparent instability of matriliny. The study aims to study the evolution of descent systems on a worldwide scale. The study tests for significant associations between matriliny and numerous cultural traits that have been theoretically associated with its stability or loss, such as subsistence strategy, animal domestication, mating system, residence pattern, wealth transfer, and property succession. Additionally, by combining genetic and linguistic information to build a global supertree that includes 16 matrilineal populations, the study also performs phylogenetically controlled analyses to assess the patterns of correlated evolution between descent and other traits.