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.

This study focuses on death symbolism in relation to matrilineal descent. Findings suggest that matrilineal societies are more likely than patrilineal or bilateral societies to believe in ancestral spirits, reincarnation, and a quality of afterlife unconditioned on individual’s behavior.

Authors test three explanations as to why bloodletting is such a near-universal therapeutic cultural practice in "the west." Using references from HRAF's database which are then re-coded for colocalization, practitioner, and cultural explanation, they find that bloodletting is practiced therapeutically by many unrelated cultures worldwide; it is heterogeneous in both form and cultural significance across the globe while still fairly ubiquitous in general. Authors posit that the widespread propensity toward bloodletting in human populations is explained by the universality of affecting/affected cognitive mechanisms. After analyzing cultural data in eHRAF, authors incorporated experiments and modeling that further supported this conclusion.

Authors test three explanations as to why bloodletting is such a near-universal therapeutic cultural practice in "the west." Using references from HRAF's database which are then re-coded for colocalization, practitioner, and cultural explanation, they find that bloodletting is practiced therapeutically by many unrelated cultures worldwide; it is heterogeneous in both form and cultural significance across the globe while still fairly ubiquitous in general. Authors posit that the widespread propensity toward bloodletting in human populations is explained by the universality of affecting/affected cognitive mechanisms. After analyzing cultural data in eHRAF, authors incorporated experiments and modeling that further supported this conclusion.

The authors use ethnographic data to try to shed light on the prevalence of missing phalanges in Upper Paleolithic cave images. Searching eHRAF World Cultures, they found evidence of finger amputation in 121 societies. These accounts cast doubt on two common theories: 1) that cave images reflect sign language or 2) counting systems. Researchers argue the intentional removal of fingers could be sorted into the 10 following categories: sacrifice (for deities), mourning (for grief), identity (for group membership), medical (to heal sickness), marriage (status marker), punishment (for deeds), veneration (for worship), offering (post mortem for deities), trophy (an enemies fingers), and talisman (assist with magic). They argue that sacrifice was the most likely reason for the missing finger images in Upper Paleolithic caves.

The article discusses the role of toys and tools in the development of skills and cultural transmission in hunter-gatherer societies. The authors present a cross-cultural inventory of objects made for and by hunter-gatherer children and adolescents, finding that toys and tools were primarily handled outside of explicit pedagogical contexts, and there is little evidence for formalised apprenticeships. The authors suggest that children's self-directed interactions with objects, especially during play, have a critical role in early-age enskillment. Both boys and girls tend to use objects in work and play that emulate the gendered division of labor in their communities, and many objects made by and for children had full-scale counterparts. Finally, the authors argue that the peer group is crucial to skill acquisition in hunter-gatherer societies.

Authors test three explanations as to why bloodletting is such a near-universal therapeutic cultural practice in "the west." Using references from HRAF's database which are then re-coded for colocalization, practitioner, and cultural explanation, they find that bloodletting is practiced therapeutically by many unrelated cultures worldwide; it is heterogeneous in both form and cultural significance across the globe while still fairly ubiquitous in general. Authors posit that the widespread propensity toward bloodletting in human populations is explained by the universality of affecting/affected cognitive mechanisms. After analyzing cultural data in eHRAF, authors incorporated experiments and modeling that further supported this conclusion.

This study analyzed fire use in 93 hunter-gatherer groups based on ethnographic texts from eHRAF in order to improve our understanding of early hominin fire use. The researchers collected data on the groups' methods of making fire, the ways they used fire, and when and where they created fires. The study found that some groups either did not know how to make fire using traditional methods or had very few members who knew how to use such methods. The study also found that many groups preferred to preserve fire rather than create it anew, even carrying it between camps. Beyond this, the ways in which fire was created and used varied widely between hunter-gatherer groups. These findings have implications for understanding early pyrotechnology and the interpretation of the presence or absence of fire residues in the Palaeolithic archaeological record. The results suggest that the absence of fire residues may indicate the absence of fire-making knowledge and skills rather than just taphonomic processes, and that the presence of fire residues does not necessarily indicate the ability to manufacture fire.

This study analyzed fire use in 93 hunter-gatherer groups based on ethnographic texts from eHRAF in order to improve our understanding of early hominin fire use. The researchers collected data on the groups' methods of making fire, the ways they used fire, and when and where they created fires. The study found that some groups either did not know how to make fire using traditional methods or had very few members who knew how to use such methods. The study also found that many groups preferred to preserve fire rather than create it anew, even carrying it between camps. Beyond this, the ways in which fire was created and used varied widely between hunter-gatherer groups. These findings have implications for understanding early pyrotechnology and the interpretation of the presence or absence of fire residues in the Palaeolithic archaeological record. The results suggest that the absence of fire residues may indicate the absence of fire-making knowledge and skills rather than just taphonomic processes, and that the presence of fire residues does not necessarily indicate the ability to manufacture fire.

This study analyzed fire use in 93 hunter-gatherer groups based on ethnographic texts from eHRAF in order to improve our understanding of early hominin fire use. The researchers collected data on the groups' methods of making fire, the ways they used fire, and when and where they created fires. The study found that some groups either did not know how to make fire using traditional methods or had very few members who knew how to use such methods. The study also found that many groups preferred to preserve fire rather than create it anew, even carrying it between camps. Beyond this, the ways in which fire was created and used varied widely between hunter-gatherer groups. These findings have implications for understanding early pyrotechnology and the interpretation of the presence or absence of fire residues in the Palaeolithic archaeological record. The results suggest that the absence of fire residues may indicate the absence of fire-making knowledge and skills rather than just taphonomic processes, and that the presence of fire residues does not necessarily indicate the ability to manufacture fire.