This book examines naming practices cross-culturally. The author posits that naming practices help to both reflect and create conceptions of personal identity. Several correlations between name meanings and practices and various sociocultural variables are presented.

This book investigates individual and group responses to death and the problems that death can create in a society. Several hypotheses regarding grief and mourning, as well as their variation with other societal variables, are supported with cross-cultural tests.

This dissertation discusses the divided theoretical approach to how reincarnation, animism, spirits, and general religious beliefs occur within societies cross-culturally. Matlock offers evidence to support Tyler, contradicting the generally accepted Durkheimian approach, arguing that the belief about souls and spirits may originate in dreams and other empirical experiences, in turn informing and shaping social organization. Durkheim argued the opposite, claiming that religious beliefs reflect social organization such as the clan and kinship. The author states 33 quantitative hypotheses to be tested using 30 of the first 60 sample societies available in the HRAF Probability Sample.

To explore the fundamental nuances of knots, this study analyzes patterns of knot tying in an evolutionary cross-cultural lens. The results highlight a set of staple knots congruent across societies that implies the fundamentality of knots to human technology and innovation, exposing both strong patterns of social learning as well as task and subsistence diversity. The knot theory and computational string matching methods used in this study could be expanded to larger string or tying analysis in the future. Geographical proximity is not generally an important factor.

While string figure designs are very widespread, global cross-cultural analysis into potential connections are lacking. This study presents the first global and cross-cultural sample of string figures and suggests the widely dispersed occurrence of identical patterns and practices reflects a deep ancestry. Patterns such as these could be a product of deep cultural transmission and cognitive evolution, topics that should be researched further in future studies.

This article examines the conditions under which slavery occurs in preindustrial societies. Results suggest that social stratification and the existence of open resources are both necessary conditions for the occurrence of slavery.

In this article, the author suggests a new topology of numerical notation systems. This new typology organizes each system by two axes. The first of these axes is cumulative versus ciphered versus multiplicative and the other is additive versus positional. The author goes on to argue that, considering the intelligibility of number systems even in the absence of knowledge about their associated language, human number systems are a reflection of cognitive processes. Finally, the author uses this new typology to build a theoretical model of numerical system evolution over time. The article concludes with suggestions for utilizing this typology in future cross-cultural research.

This paper examines death customs meant to break ties with a deceased spouse. The authors propose that remarriage rates are higher where these tie-breaking customs are practiced and that this association is stronger where sororate or levirate remarriage is practiced. Empirical support is found for these hypotheses.

This paper discusses a cross-cultural study comparing features of grammatical structure and features of social structure. The author hypothesizes that the language will emphasize "self" with more personal protection within a society.

This article examines the relationship between sexual dimorphism of stature and latitude; data support the association. The authors also find support for an association between latitude and human marriage systems, a variable proposed by Alexander (1979) to explain variation in sexual dimorphism of stature. When societies are categorized by latitude, the relationships between marriage systems and sexual dimorphism do not reach significance. Overall the authors emphasize the influence of environmental adaptation on sexual dimorphism rather than an explanation solely focused on male-male competition.