This paper seeks to identify how different practices of food sharing are related to one another, and the degree to which societies in North and South America may share practices with one another. The authors attempt this by using ethnographic literature to break sharing activities down into their constituent, multi-stage parts, and then comparing the prevalence of these parts and their relationships to one another. The study finds that the presence or absence of a distributor in a sharing activity, and who that distributor is, has a significant effect on how sharing is carried out. On the other hand, linguistic relationships between groups seem to have little impact on their sharing practices, and geographic proximity between groups only seems to have a significant effect on sharing practices in North America.

This article examines the relationship between pathogen stress and polygyny. Results indicate that there is a positive association between the two that is not confounded by geographic region, latitude, population density, male-male competition, or presence of brideprice. In particular, pathogen stress precicts higher levels of non-sororal polygyny and capturing women for wives or concubines.

In order to evaluate an adaptive justification for restriction of ritualized physical contact, the authors test association between three manifestations of physical interaction and prevalence of pathogens cross-culturally. Their expectation, supported by two of the three tested hypotheses, is that higher pathogen prevalence will lead to customs of restricted physical contact. Both cultural and biological evolution are suggested to be influential in selecting for physically intimate behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to examine female puberty rites and to suggest that such rites may be explained in terms of female physiology, as symbolized, for example, by menstruation.

This paper seeks to explain the presence of the incest taboo, and its occasional extension to first cousins. After considering prevailing theories logically, the author conducts tests of the three prevailing theories, and concludes that inbreeding theory is both the most logically sound and is best supported by ethnographic evidence. The author subsequently addresses possible exceptions to this theory, and includes a mathematical model which suggests that early expanding agricultural populations may have been able to notice the deleterious effects of inbreeding.

This study focuses on the relationship between pathogen prevalence and mate selection. Results show that increased pathogen prevalence is significantly associated with an increased importance in the physical attractiveness of potential mates.

This study examines cross-cousin marriage preferences from an evolutionary perspective. Results suggest significant associations between cross-cousin marriage preferences and both polygyny and residence.

The authors test the relationship between disease prevalence and three different personality traits, with the expectation that pathogen load will be negatively associated with degree of sociosexuality, extraversion, and openness to experience. This prediction is supported by all three tests, which they theorize is an example of cultural behaviors adapting to reduce vulnerability to environmental risks.

Apostolou examines the argument that most of human evolution occurred in an environment where individuals had limited opportunity to exercise choice. This argument derives from evidence indicating that among contemporary and ancestral postindustrial societies, mate choice is regulated by parents choosing their children's spouses. Results from the present study show that in an arranged marriage setting, there is still space for individuals to exercise choice in mates (through premarital and extramarital relationships, as well as rape). Apostolou discusses possible explanations for these findings, as well as their evolutionary significance.

This study examines Crow and Omaha kinship terminologies, cross-cousin marriage practices, and descent rules. Several hypotheses relating these three variables are tested.