Using Bayesian phylogenetic analysis, the authors ask: "Do cultural traits exhibit different histories of transmission?". They explore two competing models regarding Iranian tribal textile tradition. First, the "hierarchically integrated system hypothesis" emphasizes the importance of a core tradition and peripheral traits that are shared among contemporaneous populations. Second, the "multiple coherent units hypothesis" suggests that the groups of cultural traits have different transmission histories. The results show more support towards the "multiple coherent units hypothesis", specifically that pile-weave designs emerge as a cultural unit with a unique phylogenetic history compared to other textile characters.

Languages and weaving methods are passed down generation to generation, allowing both of them to have relatively clear phylogenies. These researchers use a Bayesian approach with Markov chain Monte Carlo methods to uncover similar but independent phylogenies for Kra-Dai languages and weaving technologies. Evolutionary differences between the two are most likely due to different rates of change: smooth change (language) and periods of burst and stasis (weaving). This study found that language phylogenies were not efficient at predicting phylogenies of technologies.

This article examines the relationship between craft specialization, technological complexity, the gendered division of labor, and trade. Seeking to understand the shift from women to men as primary weavers, the author finds that trade is a strong predictor but technological complexity of looms is not.

This chapter investigates the various socioeconomic variables that are associated with matrilineal and patrilineal institutions. Several variables were found to correlate significantly with matrilineal and patrilineal institutions.

This paper suggests that Fischer's (1961) "male security" variable is not adequate. Cross-cultural analyses suggest that male security in the realm of father-son interaction may be more important than male security in the realm of heterosexual interaction in explaining the line shape preference of a society.

This chapter examines the variables that favor restrictive premarital sex norms. Findings indicate that subsistence economy, technology, population size, political integration, belief in a high god, and residence are all correlated with premarital sex norms.

Stark attempts to resituate Tylor's formulation of religion by calling into question Swanson's (1960) and Peregrine's (1996) findings that supernatural sanctions and moral behavior are consistently correlated in small-scale societies. Positing that Swanson's correlations were confounded by variables related to cultural complexity, Stark tests the association of presence of moralizing Gods with cultural complexity explicitly, as well as measures of morality in various nations as provided by the World Values Survey (1990-1991). The robust correlations across cultures noted below, as well as cross-national findings, provide support for the researcher's theory that it is particular conceptions of God rather than participation in rites and rituals which empower religion to sustain complex moral culture.

This chapter examines the variables that are associated with the evil eye belief cross-culturally. Results suggest that the evil eye belief is significantly associated with various socioeconomic and demographic variables. All hypotheses are supported.

Child-rearing practices are tested for a relationship to art and music characteristics in a cross-cultural sample.

This paper is an investigation into the relationship between social differentiation as a proxy for societal 'development' and various categories of crime. A positive relationship is interpreted by the author as empirical cross-cultural support for Durkheim's theory that these two factors will increase together as parallel processes of 'sociocultural evolution'.