All Outputs (4)

“Fiercely Egalitarian”: Thematic Cross-Cultural Analysis Reveals Regularities in the Maintenance of Egalitarianism Across Four Independent African Hunter-Gatherer Groups (2025)
Journal Article
Thomson, J., Lew-Levy, S., von Rueden, C., & Stibbard-Hawkes, D. N. E. (online). “Fiercely Egalitarian”: Thematic Cross-Cultural Analysis Reveals Regularities in the Maintenance of Egalitarianism Across Four Independent African Hunter-Gatherer Groups. Cross-Cultural Research, https://doi.org/10.1177/10693971251338210

Globally, there are large disparities in wealth and political decision making power. By contrast, several African hunter-gatherer groups are considered exemplars of material and political egalitarianism. Whilst extant literature has revealed egalitar... Read More about “Fiercely Egalitarian”: Thematic Cross-Cultural Analysis Reveals Regularities in the Maintenance of Egalitarianism Across Four Independent African Hunter-Gatherer Groups.

Teaching is associated with the transmission of opaque culture and leadership across 23 egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies (2025)
Journal Article
Garfield, Z. H., & Lew-Levy, S. (online). Teaching is associated with the transmission of opaque culture and leadership across 23 egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies. Nature Communications, 16(1), Article 3387. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58764-9

Despite extensive work on the evolution of cooperation, the roles of teaching and leadership in transmitting opaque cultural norms—foundations of cooperative behaviors—are underexplored. Similarly, while teaching is well-studied in the evolution of i... Read More about Teaching is associated with the transmission of opaque culture and leadership across 23 egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies.

Construct Validity in Cross-Cultural, Developmental Research: Challenges and Strategies for Improvement (2025)
Journal Article
Wen, N. J., Amir, D., Clegg, J. M., Davis, H. E., Dutra, N. B., Kline, M. A., Lew-Levy, S., MacGillivray, T., Pamei, G., Wang, Y., Xu, J., & Rawlings, B. S. (2025). Construct Validity in Cross-Cultural, Developmental Research: Challenges and Strategies for Improvement. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 7, Article e17. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2025.3

The recent expansion of cross-cultural research in the social sciences has led to increased discourse on methodological issues involved when studying culturally diverse populations. However, discussions have largely overlooked the challenges of const... Read More about Construct Validity in Cross-Cultural, Developmental Research: Challenges and Strategies for Improvement.

Regulating community well-being through traditional mourning rituals: Insights from the Luhya People of Kenya (2025)
Journal Article
Asatsa, S., Lew-Levy, S., Ngaari Mbugua, S., Ntaragwe, M., Shanyisa, W., Gichimu, E., Nambiri, J., & Omuchesi, J. (2025). Regulating community well-being through traditional mourning rituals: Insights from the Luhya People of Kenya. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 13(1), 14-24. https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoaf001

Background and objectives
Rituals have been reported to serve as a vital mechanism for expressing grief and fostering communal support worldwide. Despite these benefits, use of rituals in Indigenous communities is threatened by missionization, globa... Read More about Regulating community well-being through traditional mourning rituals: Insights from the Luhya People of Kenya.