The researchers examine Boserup's (1970) theory that variation in traditional agricultural practices shape gender roles by examining the relationship between historical plough use and contemporary fertility rates and preferential attitudes towards fertility. Contrary to expectation, tests show a negative relationship between plough use and both of these variables. The authors theorize that since children are less capable of performing the intensive labor required by plough agriculture compared to hoe agriculture, adoption of the plough deincentivized increased fertility and reduced its value among agriculturalists.

This article examines the relationship between HIV/AIDS and several parameters of a nation’s demography, including income, mortality, labor, fertility, and homicide rates. Associations were supported by statistical tests. Regional differences are considered; Europe and the Muslim area had lower level of women’s HIV/AIDS infection. Four cultural adaptations to combat STDs are discussed.

This article discusses the variation in sex ratios at birth among human populations and the possible explanations for this variation. One possible explanation is the timing of intercourse and its relationship to the frequency of intercourse, which can affect the timing of conception. The article presents evidence that the male/female sex ratios of 148 countries declined with total fertility rates and polygyny intensity and increased with contraception use in correlational analysis. These results were independent of mother's age and level of economic development. The predictive effect of polygyny and contraception disappeared when total fertility was added to the equation. The article also considers other possible explanations for the variation in sex ratios, such as genetics, hormones, nutrition, and social factors.

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.

Can physiological variation in human populations be attributed to environmental variables? Arguing for the importance of phylogenetic comparative methods, the authors present the results of previous research by Holden & Mace (1997) on lactose intolerance as well as introduce new research on sex ratio at birth. The authors suggest that global variance in sex ratio at birth is an adapted response to the physiological costs of giving birth to boys in high fertility populations.

This study attempted to replicate earlier findings regarding population structure and teen pregnancy rates. Findings support the previous predictions that sex ratio, economic development, and latitude are all inversely related to teen birth rates.

This study examines relationships between subsistence type, population size, and sedentarism. Hunting, gathering, fishing, and herding societies tend to be smaller than horticultural and agricultural societies. Horticulture, agriculture, and fishing societies tend to be more sedentary.

This study tests for a relationship between subsistence type and fertility using phylogenetic and statistical analyses. The authors find a clear relationship between dependence on agriculture and fertility among non-permanently settled groups.

Researchers looked at four different demographic scenarios (altered mean vital rates (i.e., fertility and mortality), vital rate stochasticity, vital rate covariance, and periodic catastrophes) and their possible effects on the rapid population growth of contemporary human foragers and steady population decline of chimpanzees. They evaluated these variables and the various conditions that would favor a more sustainable zero population growth (ZPG) among 10 small-scale subsistence human populations (Agta, Ache, Hadza, Hiwi, Ju/’hoansi, Gainj, Tsimane, Yanomamo, Northern Territory Aborigines, and Herero) and five wild chimpanzee groups (Gombe, Kanyawara, Mahale, Ngogo, and Taï). The results state that the most effective modifications towards ZPG would include a combination of more than one of the four demographic scenarios tested, with the most realistic solution including both vital rate alteration and an increase in catastrophes.

The present study aims to evaluate correlations of private property from two of Murdock's datasets, one of 147 societies (1981) and the other of 312 societies (1967). Altogether the author tested 146 variables coded by Murdock against variables regarding the ownership of land and of movables drawn from Murdock (1967), Simmons (1937), and Swanson (1960). In total, there were 51 statistically significant correlations between private property ownership and other variables. Additionally, the author summarizes the results from this article and the two that preceded it stating that throughout all of the correlations he ran, the practice of agriculture, the use of cereal grains, and the presence of castes and classes were the only variables that predicted private property in all of the datasets that were utilized.