In this study, the author explores different pathways to the emergence of clothing outside of thermoregulation, with a focus on the use of clothing for disguise or concealment. He finds disguises in 8 out of 10 sampled societies, proposing that attempts at disguise or concealment is one possible pathway to the cultural evolution of clothing. He also finds clothing used for modesty and body armor purposes.

Using a sample of 313 societies classified within 24 language phyla, authors put forward a statistical model based on climate data [specifically focused on the 10°C (50°F) winter temperature isotherm] to explain why dispersion of preindustrial language phyla is remarkably homogeneous even despite heterogeneous geographical dispersion of sampled preindustrial cultural groups. They suggest that temperature has been a barrier to migration.

This chapter examines the role of male and female ornamentation. Several hypotheses concerning mating systems and ornamentation are empirically tested; several are supported.

This study demonstrates a correlation in Australian Aborigines between clothing and climate. Using an ethnohistorical approach, the author tests hypotheses that indicate the use of clothing as a behavioral response to environmental factors.

This study follows the theoretical construct of general cultural tightness and looseness (TL). Tightness is thought to be adaptive when facing socioecological threat, such as resource stress, since it involves a greater amount of cooperation. The study asks: "Why do some societies have relatively standardized or uniform clothing and adornment, whereas others have considerable variability across individuals?", which is connected to the broader question of why some societies show more within-group variation. The authors use a sample of 80 non-industrial societies from SCSS, to explore the relationship between general cultural tightness and standardization or synchrony in dress. The results support that tighter societies have more uniformity in dress and that resource stress is a predictor of synchrony. However, it is not supported that egalitarian societies have more synchrony, and that tightness is positively predicted by resource stress.

This descriptive study uses eHRAF to examine the use of textiles and animal skins in various funerary rituals across roughly 50 societies around the world throughout the last two centuries. The author suggests that throughout the sample, funerary textile practices (including the choice of material, the style of garment, and whether or not the body of the deceased is clothed) accurately reflect the societies’ eschatological beliefs and symbolic framework regarding death and the afterlife. This finding has implications for the interpretation of funerary textile materials in archaeological contexts, which the author argues can effectively be used to infer information about a past society’s ideological, religious and social dimensions when compared to the ethnographic record. Hypotheses were not explicitly tested.

This article focuses on ecological correlates of sexual division in the control of resources. The author tests several ecological theories put forth by others. Sex coalitions are examined in humans, and sexual dimorphism in resource acquisition and control is discussed.

This study tests several hypotheses that men and women are differentially invested in their partner's sexual fidelity. Using a cross-cultural sample authors analyze women's and men's responses to sexual infidelity.

Can physiological variation in human populations be attributed to environmental variables? Arguing for the importance of phylogenetic comparative methods, the authors present the results of previous research by Holden & Mace (1997) on lactose intolerance as well as introduce new research on sex ratio at birth. The authors suggest that global variance in sex ratio at birth is an adapted response to the physiological costs of giving birth to boys in high fertility populations.

A materialist approach is used to study the status of women in hunter-gatherer groups. Techno-ecological factors are tested as predictors of women's status.