This book examines population growth rate and its correlates by testing 274 hypotheses (derived from multiple theories) with an 18-society sample. Forty-one of these hypotheses were significant at the .05 level, leading the author to accept these relationships as reflective of the real world. The 274 hypotheses are grouped into 51 broader hypotheses, and marked by (*) where relationships are significant as designated by the author or by significance p < 0.05.

What is the evolutionary sequence of beliefs in hunter-gatherers? The authors attempt to answer this question by reconstructing the development of various traits in traditional societies using phylogenetic and linguistic source trees. Testing for correlated evolution between this reconstruction and population history as proxied by linguistic classification suggests the presence of animism at profound time depth, aligning with classical anthropological religious theory put forth by E.B. Tylor. Coevolutions between other religious concepts including shamanism, ancestor worship, active ancestor worship, high gods, active high gods, and belief in an afterlife are also examined.

Using 57 cultures from the Human Relations Area Files database, this paper examines the function and effectiveness of the belief of punitive ancestors in small-scale societies. The authors found that belief in dangerous ancestral entities is widespread and common and that harm is preventable through ritualized mortuary practices. The authors concluded that the fear of ancestral spirits did not promote social cooperation or inhibit self-interest behavior, contrary to the supernatural punishment hypothesis.

The present study builds upon Rudmin's 1992a publication by using a second data base to replicate and evaluate analyses on the cross-cultural correlates of private property ownership. Rudmin seeks to assess the reliability of Swanson's (1966) data base of 39 variables coded on 50 cultures. To do so, Swanson's data was evaluated against matching societies and variables from Murdock's (1967) Ethnographic Atlas. Swanson's reliable variables are tested against three measures of property ownership, one from Swanson and two from Murdock. Rudmin discusses results and speculates why certain clusters of societal variables correlate with private property ownership.

This paper investigates correlations between social structure and the pattern of kindship nomenclature. Results suggest that lineage nomenclatures are associated with several aspects of social structure, including unilineal descent, the domestication of plants and animals and inheritance.

This study focuses on death symbolism in relation to matrilineal descent. Findings suggest that matrilineal societies are more likely than patrilineal or bilateral societies to believe in ancestral spirits, reincarnation, and a quality of afterlife unconditioned on individual’s behavior.

In this study of 80 societies, the author initially sets out to test the theory that if social customs and rules forbid satisfaction of sexual impulses, "civilization" will be built based on sacrifices of these desires.

This article investigates child socialization toward obedience and conformity as a function of the supervision that parents experience in their own lives. Measures of economic, familial, political, and religious supervision in parents' lives are examined.

This article reassesses the cross-cultural work on status of the elderly and tests two additional variables, socialization values and ancestor worship, as predictors of the status of the elderly.

This study tests for an association between suicide rates and cultural fear of the dead. Tests do not support a significant relationship.