The authors use a comparative ethnoarchaeological model that seeks to test the applicability of Dynamical Systems Theory to modeling subsistence variation (namely the foraging-farming transition). The authors utilize the concepts of "attractors," which tend to stabilize a system, and "repellors," which tend to be destabilizing forces. Authors hope that this multidimensional approach, which assumes that several "controlling" variables disproportionately affect change within subsistence systems, will adequately model the nonlinearity and heterogeneity seen in the emergences of (and variations within) human subsistence systems throughout human history. Their model and premises regarding disproportionally-controlling variables appear to be supported.

In this study, the author explores different pathways to the emergence of clothing outside of thermoregulation, with a focus on the use of clothing for disguise or concealment. He finds disguises in 8 out of 10 sampled societies, proposing that attempts at disguise or concealment is one possible pathway to the cultural evolution of clothing. He also finds clothing used for modesty and body armor purposes.

Using a sample of 313 societies classified within 24 language phyla, authors put forward a statistical model based on climate data [specifically focused on the 10°C (50°F) winter temperature isotherm] to explain why dispersion of preindustrial language phyla is remarkably homogeneous even despite heterogeneous geographical dispersion of sampled preindustrial cultural groups. They suggest that temperature has been a barrier to migration.

Jared Diamond previously argued that the East-West orientation of Eurasia allowed for the spread of substantial cultural, political, technological, and military innovations, due to environmental homogeneity across the continent. The authors of this article test this theory through quantitative analyses. Their results suggest that ecology can indeed influence the potential for cultural transmission, consistent with Diamond's theory. However, the authors do not find support for Eurasia having lower environmental barriers to cultural transmission in comparison to other continents.

This study follows the theoretical construct of general cultural tightness and looseness (TL). Tightness is thought to be adaptive when facing socioecological threat, such as resource stress, since it involves a greater amount of cooperation. The study asks: "Why do some societies have relatively standardized or uniform clothing and adornment, whereas others have considerable variability across individuals?", which is connected to the broader question of why some societies show more within-group variation. The authors use a sample of 80 non-industrial societies from SCSS, to explore the relationship between general cultural tightness and standardization or synchrony in dress. The results support that tighter societies have more uniformity in dress and that resource stress is a predictor of synchrony. However, it is not supported that egalitarian societies have more synchrony, and that tightness is positively predicted by resource stress.

The authors test the relationship between ethnolinguistic area and various environmental variables in a cross-cultural sample of hunter-gatherer, pastoral, and agricultural subsistence groups in order to evaluate various hypotheses surrounding the geographic and ecological origins of cultural diversity. They propose that societies which adopted agriculture at the beginning of the Holocene were less directly affected by climate which, combined with the effect of increasing political and cultural complexity, allowed coordination and homogenization of ethnolinguistic groups over a broader swathe of territory.

Using a psychoanalytic-materialist approach, the author examines the possible effects of environmental unpredictability on the prevalence of unprovoked aggression by characters in folktales.

The authors investigate the relationship between linguistic diversity and various environmental and spatial variables associated with biodiversity. Most of these variables predict linguistic diversity variably across different continents, and more so within Africa and extended Asia (Asia, the Pacific, and Australia) than within Europe and the Americas. This divide is theorized to be a result of differences in demography and impact of colonialism between the two global regions. However, two environmental factors, landscape roughness and density of river systems, are found to be significant predictors across all global regions. The authors suggest that, as in processes of speciation, rough terrain and watercourses both create physical barriers between which languages can develop in isolation while, in the case of river junctions, also providing transportation routes whereby hybrid languages can occasionally manifest.

This article investigates resource availability and use in traditional societies, testing the belief that traditional societies are more environmentally responsible and sustainable. The author finds that these pre-industrial societies often do not express a conservation ethic; in fact, there are cases where resource use causes environmental degradation, especially following rapid population growth or technological development. In short, resource practices are affected by ecological variables, not by a particular attitude shared by traditional societies.

The article discusses the importance of incorporating local knowledge and strategies into sustainable climate change adaptation. The authors examined 90 societies from the ethnographic record to document the coping mechanisms and contingency plans used by societies around the world in response to natural hazards. They classified coping mechanisms into four types: technological, subsistence, economic, and religious. The study finds that most societies employ multiple types of coping mechanisms and that technological coping mechanisms are most common in response to fast-onset hazards, while religious coping mechanisms are most common in response to slow-onset hazards. The study also finds that religious and nonreligious coping strategies are not mutually exclusive and are often used in conjunction with each other.