C R Ember

Biographic Data

ID24833
NAMEC R Ember
GIVEN NAMESC R
FAMILY NAMEEmber
SIGNATUREEMBER C R
AFFILIATIONSYale University
ORCID0000-0002-8725-1691
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS81
TOTAL CITATIONS1214
AUTHOR COUNT81
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1971
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX18

  • Funerary Placement in the Past and Present: Uses of Ethnographic Analogy for Archaeological Interpretation

    Open AccessSabina Cveček, Timothy Earle et al.ARTICLEAmerican Antiquity2026

    As attested archaeologically, residential burial is the placement of the deceased within or in close proximity to houses and residential areas, and it occurs worldwide. What explains residential burial remains a puzzle. In this article, the frequency of residential burials in archaeological and ethnographic contexts are compared to assess whether residential permanence impacted the practice in different cultural contexts. We compiled two new data…

  • From local knowledge to global patterns: A cross-cultural study of the dimensions of hazards and adaptive capacity

    Open AccessSamantha K King, Cynthiann Heckelsmiller et al.ARTICLEInternational Journal of Disaster…2026

    Understanding the human impacts of environmental hazards is a growing concern. While there is a plethora of research on climate adaptation, the literature is highly fragmented, and empirical studies are rarely carried out with global samples. This lack of comparative work limits our ability to understand general patterns in how societies adapt, thereby impeding effective policy and practice at a wider scale. To fill this gap, we outline a global …

  • Climate, climate change and the global diversity of human houses

    Open AccessRobert R Dunn, Kathryn R Kirby et al.ARTICLEEvolutionary Human Sciences2024References: 7

    Globally, human house types are diverse, varying in shape, size, roof type, building materials, arrangement, decoration and many other features. Here we offer the first rigorous, global evaluation of the factors that influence the construction of traditional (vernacular) houses. We apply macroecological approaches to analyse data describing house features from 1900 to 1950 across 1000 societies. Geographic, social and linguistic descriptors for e…

  • Uniformity in Dress: A Worldwide Cross-Cultural Comparison

    Open AccessC R Ember, Abbe Mccarter et al.ARTICLEHuman Nature2023References: 38

  • Local knowledge and practice in disaster relief: A worldwide cross-cultural comparison of coping mechanisms

    Open AccessRachele Pierro, C R Ember et al.ARTICLEInternational Journal of Disaster…2022

  • Climate Variability, Drought, and the Belief that High Gods Are Associated with Weather in Nonindustrial Societies

    Open AccessC R Ember, Ian Skoggard et al.ARTICLEWeather, Climate, and Society2021

    All societies have religious beliefs, but societies vary widely in the number and type of gods in which they believe as well as their ideas about what the gods do. In many societies, a god is thought to be responsible for weather events. In some of those societies, a god is thought to cause harm with weather and/or can choose to help, such as by bringing needed rain. In other societies, gods are not thought to be involved with weather. Using a wo…

  • Pathways to social inequality

    Open AccessHannah J Haynie, Patrick H Kavanagh et al.ARTICLEEvolutionary Human Sciences2021Cited by: 6References: 15

  • The Relationships of Extreme Precipitation and Temperature Events with Ethnographic Reports of Droughts and Floods in Nonindustrial Societies

    B S Felzer, C R Ember et al.ARTICLEWeather, Climate, and Society2020

    Our broad research goal is to understand how human societies adapt to natural hazards, such as droughts and floods, and how their social and cultural structures are shaped by these events. Here we develop meteorological data of extreme dry, wet, cold, and warm indices relative to 96 largely nonindustrial societies in the worldwide Standard Cross-Cultural Sample to explore how well the meteorological data can be used to hindcast ethnographically r…

  • Resource stress and subsistence diversification across societies

    Open AccessC R Ember, Erik J Ringen et al.ARTICLENature Sustainability2020Cited by: 4References: 11

  • Coding culture: Challenges and Recommendations for Comparative Cultural Databases

    Open AccessEdward Slingerland, Quentin Atkinson et al.ARTICLEEvolutionary Human Sciences2020Cited by: 5References: 15

  • Resource Stress Predicts Changes in Religious Belief and Increases in Sharing Behavior

    Open AccessIan Skoggard, C R Ember et al.ARTICLEHuman Nature2020Cited by: 2References: 64

  • Predictors of Land Privatization: Cross-Cultural Tests of Defendability and Resource Stress Theory

    Open AccessC R Ember, Teferi Abate Adem et al.ARTICLEAmerican Anthropologist2020Cited by: 2References: 47

    We have known for some time that complex societies are more likely to have land tenure systems based on private rights and less likely to have communal ownership. Less understood is why. More specifically, what are the mechanisms to explain why complex societies have more private property? What are the adaptive advantages of one system rather than the other? Conceptualizing and coding land tenure systems as a "bundle of rights," this worldwide cr…

  • Our better nature: Does resource stress predict beyond-household sharing?

    Open AccessC R Ember, Ian Skoggard et al.ARTICLEEvolution and Human Behavior2018

  • Warfare, atrocities, and political participation: Eastern Africa

    Open AccessC R Ember, Eric C Jones et al.ARTICLEJournal of Aggression Conflict…2018Cited by: 1References: 20

    Purpose Ember et al. (1992) addressed whether the “democracies rarely fight each other” hypothesis held true in the anthropological record of societies of various sizes and scales around the world. They indeed found that more participatory polities had less internal warfare – or warfare between one society’s territorial units (e.g. bands, villages, districts). The purpose of this paper is to examine when political participation would have similar…

  • Children's Play and Work: The Relevance of Cross-Cultural Ethnographic Research for Archaeologists

    C R Ember, Christiane M CunnarARTICLEChildhood in the Past2015

    If archaeologists want to know what children are doing, it is prudent to study the extant ethnographic record. Using representative cross-cultural samples and ethnographic data from eHRAF World Cultures, we examine both children's play and children's work. With regard to play, we explore ethnographer descriptions of types of play activities, the morphology and materials of play objects, the context of play (spatial location, environment context) …

  • Rain and Raids Revisited: Disaggregating Ethnic Group Livestock Raiding in the Ethiopian-Kenyan Border Region

    C R Ember, Ian Skoggard et al.ARTICLECivil Wars2014Cited by: 3

    Focusing on livestock raiding, a major form of violence in arid and semiarid regions, we evaluate the relationship between rainfall and intensity of violence, disaggregating ethnic groups that have somewhat different subsistence patterns. We do so to try to resolve previously published results and conclusions that appear contradictory – some research finding livestock violence higher in wet times suggestive of more violence in times of plenty; ot…

  • Introduction to “Coping with Environmental Risk and Uncertainty: Individual and Cultural Responses

    Open AccessC R EmberARTICLEHuman Nature2013References: 4

  • Risk, Uncertainty, and Violence in Eastern Africa: A Regional Comparison

    Open AccessC R Ember, Teferi Abate Adem et al.ARTICLEHuman Nature2013Cited by: 4References: 31

  • Livestock Raiding and Rainfall Variability in Northwestern Kenya

    C R Ember, Teferi Abate Adem et al.ARTICLECivil Wars2012Cited by: 10References: 4

    In 2009, Witsenburg and Adano summarized their research on rainfall variability and livestock raiding in Marsabit District, Kenya. They found that livestock-related violence was higher in wetter months and wetter years, contrary to the common assumption that scarcity of water and pasture is the primary driver of livestock violence. Our research, focusing on the neighboring Turkana District of northwestern Kenya, attempted to replicate the Witsenb…

  • What We Know and What We Don’t Know About Variation in Social Organization: Melvin Ember’s Approach to the Study of Kinship

    Open AccessC R EmberARTICLECross-Cultural Research2011Cited by: 1References: 27

    Focusing on Melvin Ember’s kinship interests, this article tries to summarize what we know and don’t know about the conditions favoring different aspects of cultural variation in kinship and social organization. What explains the incest taboo and its variable extensions to cousin marriage? What explains marriage? What explains variation in marital residence patterns? Why polygyny versus monogamy? Why are family households extended or independent?…

  • Explaining Male Initiation Ceremonies: New Cross-Cultural Tests and a Catalytic Model

    Open AccessC R Ember, Melvin EmberARTICLEJournal of Cross-Cultural…2010Cited by: 1References: 16

    This cross-cultural study compares two different explanations of male initiation ceremonies: John Whiting and colleagues' theory that initiation rites function to resolve psychological conflict and Melvin Ember's theory that male initiation ceremonies provide basic army training in nonstate societies. Although bivariate results suggest support for John Whiting's, but not Ember's, theory, a reconsideration of Beatrice Whiting's theorizing about th…

  • Testing Adaptational Explanations of Culture: The Utility of eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology

    Open AccessMelvin Ember, C R EmberARTICLEGeneral Anthropology2009Cited by: 1

  • Comparing Explanations of Polygyny

    Open AccessMelvin Ember, C R Ember et al.ARTICLECross-Cultural Research2007

    Polygyny is common in the ethnographic record. The vast majority of cultures known to anthropology allowed at least some men to have more than one wife simultaneously. This article compares various explanations of nonsororal polygyny, by far the most common type of polygyny. Multiple regression analyses of data for the societies in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample indicate that the two main independent cross-cultural predictors of appreciable (…

  • War and the Socialization of Children: Comparing Two Evolutionary Models

    Open AccessC R Ember, Melvin EmberARTICLECross-Cultural Research2007Cited by: 5References: 39

    This article presents two evolutionary models that may explain relationships between war, socialization, and other kinds of violence. One model derives from the perspective suggesting that reproductive strategy is contingent on environmental variation; the other model derives from a number of studies conducted by Carol and Melvin Ember. In this article, the authors focus particularly on the causes and consequences of low father salience. They spe…

  • Modeling State Origins Using Cross-Cultural Data

    Open AccessPeter N Peregrine, C R Ember et al.ARTICLECross-Cultural Research2007Cited by: 3References: 20

    The emergence of states has been a focal concern of archaeology for many years. Although comparative methods have played a significant role in these approaches, controlled comparisons employing large samples of cases and multivariate statistical methods of analysis have been rare. The authors follow up on a previous article by employing multivariate data coded for a large sample of archaeological cases and a variety of statistical methods to empi…