Textor summarizes cross-cultural findings on extramarital sexual relations pertaining to cultural, environmental, psychological, and social phenomena.

This article uses factor analysis to identify the key variables underlying the many cross-cultural associations reported by Textor (1967). Twelve factors are identified.

This study examines the double standard regarding extramarital norms for men and women in relation to other sociocultural factors. Results suggest that a double standard is significantly related to post-partum sex taboos, hypermasculinity, and father absence.

This article explores the interrelated roles of male parental investment (males' infant/child care and resource provisioning) and male-male competition (variation in male status) on the degree of monogamy or polygyny in a society. Marlowe argues that Degree of parental investment affects females' interest in resource-shopping versus gene-shopping. Also discussed is the idea that male-male competition affects males' inclination toward harem-defense or coercive polygyny. Particular attention is paid to variation in parental investment and male stratification across subsistence types.

This paper presents tests of the relationships between tropical African agriculture and cultural variables regulating reproduction in order to examine a theory which suggests that the lagging or absence of tropical Africa's demographic transition is the result of pervasive 'pro-natal' cultural practices. Strength of association between these factors and non-plow agriculture, the traditional method of farming in tropical Africa, leads the authors to suggest that women's larger subsistence role in these societies favors extended family households in which child-rearing responsibilities can be shared, and polygynous marriage systems in which co-wives can contribute substantially to the family's labor productivity. These, along with erosion of regulations on postpartum sex and birth spacing which were prevalent prior to modernization, are identified as characterstics which have and will continue to resist fertility decline.

This article examines parent-in-law avoidance in non-industrial societies. The author suggests that in-law avoidance is associated with characteristics of kinship structure, such as lineality, residence and family type. A psychological interpretation is also offered. Results support hypotheses relating to kinship structure.

This article examines variation in kinship terminology. The authors develop a new typology of kinds of kinship terminologies, and they propose that terminologies will distinguish siblings of the same and opposite gender when there is a cultural emphasis on cross-sex relations. Empirical analysis supports that a prolonged post-partum sex taboo (rather than sibling avoidance) predicts the presence of a primary cross-parallel component in sibling terminology.

This article investigates determinants of the couvade; the authors reexamine some of their earlier findings and also consider Broude’s (1988) response to their previous studies. Exclusive mother-infant sleeping arrangements, matrilocal residence, and “protest masculinity” (a concept suggested by Broude) were all found to be associated with the couvade. Father-salience in infancy, also suggested by Broude, was only marginally associated.

In this paper, the author argues that moral systems evolved as a way to enforce cooperation between people outside of kin groups. Because cooperation within kin groups has apparent adaptive advantages, it is argued that these moral systems will be less important for societies with tight kin groups and conversely more important for those with looser kin groups. In order to test this theory, the author creates an original model that incorporates both ethnographic data and data from contemporary countries. Thus, it is postulated that historical kinship practices will influence contemporary systems. The paper concludes that there is sufficient historical evidence for this theory.

This article discusses two different explanations of male initiation ceremonies. Evidence is also presented that suggests that psychological conflict might strongly predict male initiation in the presence of the following catalysts: nonmatrilocal residence, nonstate political organization, and warfare.