This study tests the validity of two previous diachronic studies examining the relationship between subsistence strategy and sexual dimorphism of stature with synchronic data. The authors find that neither hypothesis is valid.

This study tests possible explanations for sexual dimorphism in human post-reproductive life-spans. The author focuses on explanations involving male paternal investment and finds that men in agricultural societies are more likely to invest in their offspring than men in hunter-gatherer societies.

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.

This article examines height and sexual dimorphism of stature from a sociobiological perspective. Diet, child rearing, and marriage practices are tested as possible factors contributing to height sexual dimorphism of stature. Results provide some support for a nutritional hypotheses, but sexual selection and parental investment are not statistically significant.

In this paper, the authors argue against the findings presented in Hay & Bauer (2007) which suggest a positive correlation between population size and phoneme inventory size in languages. In order to do so, they highlight some methodological issues in the previous study, as well as other studies addressing similar questions. To address these issues, the authors conducted their own study using a larger and more representative sample of phoneme inventories drawn from the PHOIBLE knowledge base, and applied a more rigorous statistical analysis using a hierarchical mixed model. The results indicate that correlations between population size and phoneme inventory size are quite small when compared to differences among language family groups, and that the phoneme-population relationship fluctuates around zero between families, suggesting that any relationship between population and phoneme inventory size does not generalize to language as a whole. The author concludes that the correlations seen between population and phoneme inventories are likely to be artifacts, and do not find compelling reason to consider population size as a potential causal factor in the development of phonological systems.

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.

The researchers operationalize new measures of Socially Imposed Monogamy (SIM) and Ecologically Imposed Monogamy (EIM) using scores from Murdock's (1986) Ethnographic Atlas in order to reevaluate Alexander et al.'s (1979) findings that sexual stature dimorphism is higher in SIM (monogamous and highly stratified) and polygynous societies compared to EIM (monogamous and egalitarian) ones. The expected associations between marriage system and sexual dimorphism are not robustly significant; however, an interaction effect is discovered between marriage system and stratification with regard to dimorphism.

This comment suggests methodological flaws in Gaulin and Schlegel’s (1980) article on male parental certainty and investment practices. The authors take issue with multiple coding decisions and suggest that the findings from the 1980 study ought to be rejected; data does not support a positive association between male parental certainty and investment practices.

This study undertakes a systematic exploration of the relationship between ecological conditions and human cultural variation, responding to the research question: “How much of cultural variation can be explained by ecology?”. The authors use a dataset comprising 9 ecological variables: rainfall, temperature, GDP, the Gini index of resource inequality, extrinsic mortality, life expectancy, disease threat, unemployment and population density. They assess the relation between these 9 variables and 66 cultural variables across 201 countries. In addition, the study considers the effects of spatial and cultural autocorrelation, including 11 distinct statistical metrics. The results are consistent with the idea that ecological variables make a substantial contribution to human cultural variation, and particularly multiple ecological variables simultaneously. Current levels and average levels of ecological conditions emerge as particularly influential. Conversely, markers of ecological variability and unpredictability demonstrate more relatively little influence.

The article examines whether cultural groups tend to use supernatural beliefs more to explain natural phenomena or social phenomena. Analysis of ethnographic text from 114 diverse societies reveals that supernatural explanations are more common for natural phenomena, consistent with the theory that humans tend to perceive intent and agency in the natural world. However, supernatural explanations of social phenomena were more prevalent in urbanized societies with greater social complexity and anonymity. The study highlights how people use supernatural beliefs to explain their world and how this varies across small-scale and urbanized communities.