This book investigates reproductive rituals in preindustrial societies. Major theories are discussed, and cross-cultural tests of several variables (fraternal interest groups, menarcheal ceremonies, puberty ceremonies, residence, circumcision, birth practices, segregation practices, etc.) are conducted.

This article examines cross-cultural variation in customary birth practices for men and women, testing a general hypothesis that birth practices represent tactics in negotiations over paternity. Data supports this hypothesis, and a series of related variables are tested in bivariate analysis and path analysis. Findings suggest that compensation demands at birth are associated with maternal restrictions from paternity-related agreements (e.g. maternal seclusion during birth), and fraternal interest groups are associated with the husband’s ritual involvement at birth (e.g. demonstration of the couvade).

This book is a comprehensive analysis of many aspects of social structure including family, clan, community, kinship terminology, social organization, regulation of sex, incest taboos, and sexual choice.

This study examines relationships among the instruction of children, household type and size, and political integration. Particular attention is paid to type of instruction--whether the instructor is kin or non-kin, and whether the instruction requires a change in the child's residence. Different types of instruction are theorized to solve problems for children in different household types (e.g. children in mother-child households experience gender identity conflict, and so leave their houses for instruction from non-kin). The causality between instruction and societal complexity is also discussed.

This article tests some conditions that may lead to the emergence of unilineal descent, focusing on unilocality and warfare. Unilineal descent is thought to be likely in a unilocal society without a centralized political system that is experiencing intra- or inter-societal warfare. The authors also posit that a "clan" system usually develops prior to a "lineage" system.

Using phylogenetic comparative methods, the study explores the evolution of kinship terminologies within 176 societies in Austronesian, Bantu, and Uto-Aztecan language families. The authors consider 18 theories in the anthropological record that suggests that change in kinship terminologies is predicted by some social structures: marriage, residence, and descent. Only 19 of the 29 statistical hypotheses are supported, while none of the theories are supported in all three language families. This statistical irregularity means that the results are lineage-specific, instead of showing a universal driver of change in kinship terminology types.

Female genital mutilations within Africa are associated with strong fraternal interest groups, virginity tests, and conservative permarital sex norms. Codes and ratings for female genital mutilations, virginity tests, premarital sex norms, and female initiation rites are presented in this article.

Researchers examined kinships terminology systems for explanations regarding specifically observed typology of kin terms for cousins cross-culturally. They explore two theories, the first relating to population size via bottleneck evolution, and the second relating to social practices that shape kinship systems. Using the Ethnographic Atlas within D-PLACE, 936 societies with kinship system information were studied. The findings did not suggest a relationship between increased community size and a decrease in kinship complexity, however the research does suggest a relationship between practices of marriage and descent and kinship complexity.

This chapter explores and tests some propositions about matrilineal societies. Supplementary to that discussion, the author also explores the problems of method associated with the use of coded data on large samples of cultures.

Heider's theory of cognitive balance is applied to Levi-Strauss' discussion of the sentiment relations existing among four kin roles.