The Atlas of Human Possibility — 1,291 societies sorted by 54 everyday questions

Start with one question

When two people marry, who gives wealth to whom?

Pick the answer that feels natural to you. The atlas then shows in how many of the 1,272 societies with a record for this question the chosen answer was recorded.

In 657 societies out of 1,272, the groom or his kin made a substantial payment to the bride's family. Dowry, property given by the bride's relatives to her, the groom or his kin, was recorded in 43; nothing of consequence, in 275; the groom's labour for the bride's family, in 125; a token payment, in 68; gifts exchanged between the families, in 65; a sister or other female relative of the groom given in exchange for the bride, in 39.

What the atlas is made of

In 1967 the American anthropologist George Peter Murdock published the Ethnographic Atlas: one record for each of 1,291 societies, compiled from the ethnographic descriptions in print at the time. Every record has a place on the map, a focal year and dozens of headings coded the same way for everyone: the shape of the house, the form of marriage, who inherits, how many levels of authority sit above the village. The focal year says when the society was observed. For 1,244 of the 1,279 dated records it falls between 1800 and 1965; the oldest, the year 100, belongs to the ancient Romans.

Murdock's headings are codes, not sentences. 'Where does the couple live' has 12 codes, with names like 'avunculocal' or 'ambi-virilocal'. Here they are gathered into seven answers anyone can read, and the original code, with its definition, stays one click away, in the record of every question and every society. The data come from D-PLACE, the Max Planck Institute database that has, since 2016, tied every code to its bibliographic sources and to the language spoken.

Some questions, marked 'closer sample', come from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample: 186 societies chosen by Murdock and Douglas White in 1969, one from each cultural region, so that the same tradition would not be counted ten times. The sample is not a more accurate version of the atlas; it is a selection made so that related societies do not appear several times over. On these, generations of researchers coded thousands of further headings: where the baby sleeps, how close the father is, why people fall ill, what is done with the bones. When a question comes from there, the other 1,105 dots fade into the background.

Among the records are the 'New Englanders', with a focal year of 1920: the new couple away from both spouses' kin, kin counted on both sides, one word for every cousin, one spouse, no payment of consequence at marriage, land divided equally among the children. The record opens with a click on its dot, or from the search box.

The atlas

Choose a domain and a question. The dots are the 1,291 societies; they regroup by answer, can be placed on the map and coloured by region or by language family. Each dot is a society as it was described at a particular place and time, most often in the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth. A click on a dot opens the society's record, with the year, the original code and the sources.

Find a society

How it was counted: the variable, the codes, the denominator

Rare possibilities

Ten answers recorded only a few times, with the societies in which they were recorded.

A woman with several husbands4 of 1,257How many spouses can a person have?Central Tibetans, 1920; Marquesans, 1900; Sherpa, 1950; Toda, 1900
Spouses each stay in the household they were born into8 of 1,267After the wedding, where does the couple live?Aua, 1900; Fur, 1880; Ga, 1930; Kerala, 1799; Kutubu, 1940; Marind-Amin, 1910; Minangkabau, 1920; Siane, 1940
Infection as the main explanation of illness1 of 122Why do people fall ill? Infection closer sampleJapanese, 1950
No belief in ghosts1 of 59Are there ghosts? closer sampleMaasi, 1900
Polygonal houses2 of 1,197What shape is the house?Koryak, 1900; Sivokakmeit, 1920
Only games of chance2 of 486What kinds of games are played?Hutsuls, 1890; Li, 1930
The bride has more say than the groom in the choice of marriage3 of 80Who decides whom you marry? closer sampleGaro, 1900; Kwoma, 1930; Wodaabe Fulani, 1950
In principle, only men can divorce5 of 93Who can ask for a divorce? closer sampleAbipón, 1800; Barabra, 1920; Callinago, 1650; Manchu, 1920; Sirionó, 1940
A strong belief in the reincarnation of adults9 of 53Do dead adults return in a new life? closer sampleBalinese, 1950; Burmese, 1950; Comanche, 1870; Eyak, 1890; Garo, 1900; Huron, 1640; Igbo, 1930; Trobriands, 1910; Twana, 1850
The youngest heir receives most of the land22 of 820Is the inheritance split equally, or does one take it all?

A game

Who lived most differently from what feels normal to you?

Ten questions, one from each domain. Pick at each the answer that feels normal; the answers describe a society's arrangements, not personal choices. Only the questions you answered and for which the society has a record are compared. A society enters the ranking if it has a record for at least seven of the questions you answered, or for all of them if you answered fewer than seven. Societies are ordered by the share of differing answers among those compared, in decreasing order, then by the number of compared questions, then alphabetically. A missing record never counts as a difference.

A computed example: with the answers of the New Englanders' record of 1920 to eight of the ten questions (the Romanians' record of 1910 has a code for only two), 45 societies of the 950 comparable ones differ on every compared question, 41 of them in Africa. The 18 societies with a record for all eight questions: Azande, Banda, Bassari, Coniagui, Gbaya, Ibibio, Isoko, Kpelle, Luapula, Mbuti, Mossi (Yatenga), Ngere, Popoi, Songye, Temne, Tiv, Toma, Walbiri.

What recurs and what surprises

The atlas does not say that anything goes. Some answers dominate: in 904 of 1,267 societies the couple as a rule lived with or near the husband's parents or his father's line, and together with those in which it lived with his mother's-line kin, 969; in 436 of 575 the houses were built by men; in 525 of 1,155 there was no authority above the village. People had the same problems to solve, with the same bodies and few materials, and many solutions were repeated independently.

Beside every dominant answer, though, stand documented alternatives. In 54 societies the couple lived with the husband's maternal uncle or other kin of his mother's line. In 338, cousins were called by the same word as siblings. Dowry, the form in European history, appears in 43 societies, and the payment in the opposite direction, from the groom to the bride's family, in 657. The round house was recorded in 513 societies, almost as many as the rectangular one, in 582. In a single society out of 122, infection was the main explanation of illness.

Distance can also be measured. The game below uses ten questions, one from each domain, and orders the societies by the share of differing answers among those compared. With the answers of the New Englanders' record of 1920, which has a code for eight of the ten, 45 societies of the 950 comparable ones differ on every compared question: 41 in Africa and four in Australia and the Pacific, among them the Azande, the Mbuti, the Kpelle and the Walbiri. At the other pole, four records differ on none: the Neapolitans, the Spaniards, the Lebanese and the New Englanders themselves.

The dots are not independent of one another. 414 of them are in Africa and 284 in North America, because that is where most ethnography was written; 306 societies speak languages of the Atlantic-Congo family, 131 of the Austronesian family. An answer that looks universal can turn out, on the map, to be the custom of a single language family spread across a continent. The 'by region' and 'by language family' buttons colour the dots for exactly that reason, and in the grouped rows related dots sit side by side, as blocks: 306 dots with the same answer are not necessarily 306 separate inventions.

What the atlas cannot say

Every dot is a dated observation, not a description of the present. The Romanians of 1910 are not the Romanians of today, and the Hawaiians of 1800 are not those of 1965. That is why everything on this page is in the past tense.

A missing record does not mean 'no'. For games, 805 records have no code at all; for land inheritance, 435. The counts use only records with a code, and the rest are shown separately, as empty rings.

Codes lose information. Murdock himself wrote that the inheritance headings had 'proved inadequate' for societies with communal property. The grouping here loses a little more; that is why the original code sits beside every answer.

The dots are societies, not countries, and a present-day state may contain dozens of dots or none. The names are those in the database, sometimes names given from outside and rejected today by the people so named; alternative names appear in the record. Europe is thinly covered, with 42 societies, because ethnography was mostly written about others.

Every question, in figures

The same counts as tables: for each question, the documented answers, the number of societies and the share of those with a record.

Family and kinship (4)

After the wedding, where does the couple live?

EA012 · Marital residence with kin: prevailing pattern · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
With or near the husband's parents or his father's line	904	71%
With or near the wife's parents or her mother's line	140	11%
With either family, as circumstances allow	83	7%
Apart from the relatives of both, or at a place not determined by kin ties	62	5%
With the husband's maternal uncle or other kin of his mother's line	54	4%
With one of the families or with the husband's maternal uncle, as an option	16	1%
No shared household: each stays in the household they were born into	8	1%
No record	24

Neolocal residence means that the couple lives apart from the relatives of both spouses, or at a place not determined by kin ties; the code says nothing about who owns the house. It is the arrangement a reader in Europe today takes for granted, and in the atlas it is rare. In 904 societies out of 1,267 the couple as a rule lived with or near the husband's parents or his father's line. In another 54 it lived with the husband's maternal uncle or other kin of his mother's line, and in another 11 that was an alternative to his father's side; together these categories cover 969 societies. There is also the mirror image, towards the wife's kin, and one in which the two each stay in the household they were born into.

Which side counts as your line of descent?

EA043 · Descent: major type · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
The father's line	590	46%
Both sides, no fixed line	362	28%
The mother's line	160	13%
A chosen or mixed line	110	9%
Two lines at once, each for different things	52	4%
No record	17

A European reader counts relatives on both sides, with no preference for the father's or the mother's line. That bilateral reckoning is the second most common in the atlas. The most widespread is the father's line, and the mother's line, in which children belong to the mother's kin and inherit from her brother, appears in 160 societies.

What do you call your cousins?

EA027 · Kin terms for cousins · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
The same word as for siblings	338	35%
The children of two brothers or of two sisters are called 'siblings', the other cousins are not	256	27%
Some cousins get the word for parents or children	137	14%
One word for all cousins, another for siblings	110	12%
Each cousin described through the chain of relatives	81	8%
A mixed pattern	18	2%
A different word for each kind of cousin	15	2%
No record	336

In 338 societies, cousins were called by the same word as siblings. The Romanian and English system, one word for every cousin and another for siblings, was named 'Eskimo' by anthropologists because the Inuit share it. Other systems split cousins by the side they come from, or place them in the parents' generation.

Who lives under the same roof?

EA008 · Domestic organization · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
An elder's family and those of several of their children	321	25%
A man, several wives and their children	280	22%
Parents and children, occasionally two wives	271	21%
A large household of several families	234	19%
Parents and children, one wife	111	9%
Two related families, usually parents and one married child	43	3%
A woman with several husbands	3	under 1%
No record	28

The household of parents and children, alone in its house and monogamous, is the form that everyday language assumes. The atlas records it in 111 societies. Households spanning two or three generations, and households with several wives, appear more often.

Love and marriage (7)

How many spouses can a person have?

EA009 · Marital composition: monogamy and polygamy · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
Several wives, as the rule	589	47%
Several wives, but rarely	463	37%
One wife or one husband	201	16%
Several husbands	4	under 1%
No record	34

Monogamy as the only permitted form appears in 201 of the 1,257 societies with a record. In most, a man could have several wives, either as an exception or as the rule. Polyandry, one woman with several husbands, was recorded in four: the Central Tibetans, the Sherpa, the Toda of south India and the Marquesans.

When two people marry, who gives wealth to whom?

EA006 · Transactions at marriage: prevailing type · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
A substantial payment from the groom to the bride's family	657	52%
Nothing of consequence	275	22%
The groom's labour for the bride's family	125	10%
A token payment	68	5%
Gifts exchanged between the two families	65	5%
Dowry: property given by the bride's relatives to her, the groom or his kin	43	3%
A sister or other female relative of the groom, given in exchange for the bride	39	3%
No record	19

Dowry, property given by the bride's relatives to her, to the groom or to his kin, is the form known from European history. The atlas records it in 43 societies. Fifteen times as often, the payment went the other way: the groom or his kin gave livestock, goods or money to the bride's family.

Can you marry a cousin?

EA023 · Cousin marriages permitted · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
Neither first nor second cousins	282	27%
First cousins are forbidden	277	27%
Only cross-cousins, the children of a brother and a sister	255	24%
Any first cousin	117	11%
Only second cousins	64	6%
Other rules on first cousins	34	3%
First cousins and some second cousins are forbidden	13	1%
No record	249

The total ban, neither first nor second cousins, is the most frequent record. In 255 societies, though, marriage with a particular kind of cousin was allowed and often usual: cross-cousins, the children of a brother and a sister, are the most commonly permitted.

What was expected of girls before marriage?

EA078 · Norms of premarital sexual behavior of girls · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
Premarital sex allowed, no sanctions	208	35%
Virginity required, premarital sex punished	153	26%
Premarital sex forbidden, but unpunished	121	20%
Premarital sex allowed, punished only if pregnancy follows	58	10%
Moot: girls married very young	47	8%
Trial marriage	11	2%
No record	693

In 153 societies virginity was required and premarital sex was punished. In 208, premarital relations were free and carried no sanction. In between sit bans without consequences, permission withdrawn only if pregnancy follows, and trial marriage.

Is adultery judged the same for husband and wife?

SCCS169 · Extramarital Sex · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
Allowed only for the husband	48	44%
Forbidden to both, the wife punished more	24	22%
Forbidden to both, equally	24	22%
Allowed to both	13	12%
No record	77

In the closer sample, a double standard in the husband's favour is the most frequent record. A single standard appears in 37 societies, either because both spouses were condemned alike, or because both were allowed.

Who decides whom you marry?

SCCS604 · Voice of the Potential Bride and Groom in Marriage Decisions · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
The groom and the bride, equally	46	58%
The groom has more say	27	34%
Only the groom can propose or refuse	4	5%
The bride has more say	3	4%
No record	106

The variable measures the power of the groom and the bride to propose or refuse a match, whoever arranges the marriage. In 46 of 80 societies, the two had an equal say.

Who can ask for a divorce?

SCCS610 · Relative Ease of Initiating Divorce · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
Either spouse, equally easily	72	77%
Both, but harder for the wife	12	13%
Only the husband	5	5%
Both, but harder for the husband	4	4%
No record	93

In 72 of 93 societies with a record, divorce was equally available to husband and wife. The coding concerns the possibility, not the frequency.

Childhood (6)

Where does a baby sleep?

SCCS23 · Sleeping Proximity of Parents to Infant · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
In the mother's room, in another bed or unspecified	97	56%
In the mother's bed	53	31%
In both parents' bed	23	13%
No record	13

A separate room for the baby appears in none of the 173 societies with a record: every code puts the child in the mother's room. In 76, the baby slept in her bed, and in 23 of those the father shared it too.

How close is the father to a baby?

SCCS53 · Role of Father, Infancy · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
Occasionally close	72	47%
Frequently or constantly close	47	31%
Rarely close	27	18%
Distant	8	5%
No record	32

The code tracks physical closeness and care, not affection. 'Regular' closeness was recorded in three societies out of 154.

At what age does breastfeeding end?

SCCS45 · Weaning - Age of Termination · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
25 to 36 months	72	46%
13 to 24 months	43	28%
37 to 48 months	30	19%
Up to 12 months	7	4%
49 to 60 months	4	3%
No record	30

The most frequently recorded age at the end of breastfeeding is between two and a half and three years. Weaning by one year appears in seven societies out of 156.

How is a baby carried?

SCCS28 · Infant Carrying Devices · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
In a sling or pouch	75	48%
In the arms, with nothing	44	28%
Strapped to a cradleboard	28	18%
In a basket	9	6%
No record	30

The cloth sling, the oldest carrying system, is also the most frequently recorded. The rigid cradleboard, a board to which the child is strapped, was recorded in 28 societies, 19 of them in North America.

How quickly do adults answer a crying baby?

SCCS31 · Infant Crying - Response · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
Quickly, every time or nearly	78	76%
Quickly, but not consistently	19	18%
Slowly or with indifference	6	6%
No record	83

A prompt, nurturing response is the recorded norm: 78 of 103 societies. A slow or indifferent response appears in six.

Was a boy or a girl preferred?

SCCS616 · A Stated Preference for Children of One Sex · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
No stated preference	54	58%
Boys	28	30%
Girls	11	12%
No record	93

A stated preference for boys appears in 28 societies out of 93; for girls, in 11. No stated preference is the most frequent record.

Home and settlement (5)

What shape is the house?

EA079 · House construction: ground plan · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
Rectangular or square	582	49%
Round	513	43%
Around an inner courtyard	51	4%
Oval or elongated	49	4%
Polygonal	2	under 1%
No record	94

The round house was recorded almost as often as the rectangular one: 513 against 582. The courtyard house, the Mediterranean and Chinese pattern, appears in 51 societies.

What shape is the roof?

EA082 · House construction: shape of roof · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
Gabled, two slopes	377	33%
Conical	353	31%
Dome, beehive or vault	207	18%
Flat	95	8%
Hipped, four slopes	88	8%
A single slope	15	1%
No record	156

The gabled roof, the one in European children's drawings, and the conical roof were recorded almost equally often. Roofs shaped as a dome, a beehive or a vault were recorded in 207 societies.

Where is the floor relative to the ground?

EA080 · House construction: floor level · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
At ground level	941	80%
Dug into the ground	86	7%
On stilts or posts	79	7%
Slightly raised	73	6%
No record	112

The house dug into the ground and the house on stilts are two answers to the same problem, cold and damp. Together they were recorded in 165 societies.

How are the dwellings arranged?

EA030 · Settlement patterns · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
Compact, permanent villages or towns	518	44%
Bands on the move half the year, with a fixed settlement otherwise	188	16%
Dispersed homesteads	151	13%
Hamlets linked into one community	106	9%
Moving between several fixed settlements	97	8%
Fully nomadic bands	81	7%
A village with homesteads and hamlets around it	31	3%
Villages moved every few years	15	1%
No record	104

The compact, permanent village is the most frequent record, but in 381 societies people moved: entirely, with the seasons, or every few years.

How many people does a community have?

EA031 · Mean size of local communities · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
50 to 99	119	19%
Under 50	118	19%
100 to 199	106	17%
200 to 399	86	14%
A city of over 50,000	66	11%
400 to 1,000	61	10%
A town of over 5,000	38	6%
1,000 to 5,000	17	3%
No record	680

Fewer than half the societies have an estimate. Among those, in 237 the usual community had under a hundred people, and in 66 there was at least one city of over 50,000.

Food and work (9)

Where does most of the food come from?

EA042 · Subsistence economy: dominant activity · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
Extensive agriculture, with land left to recover	477	37%
Intensive agriculture	282	22%
Fishing	121	9%
Gathering	103	8%
Agriculture of unknown type, or casual	86	7%
Hunting	77	6%
Herding	77	6%
Two or more sources, in equal parts	67	5%
No record	1

Extensive agriculture, with land cleared, farmed for a few years and then left to recover, is the most frequent record. Gathering, hunting and fishing together fed 301 societies.

Are the animals milked?

EA041 · Domestic animals: milking · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
No, or hardly ever	806	68%
Yes, more than sporadically	376	32%
No record	109

Milk as adult food is ordinary in Europe and rare across most of the world. In 806 of the 1,182 societies with a record, animals were not milked at all, or hardly ever.

Do animals pull the plough?

EA039 · Domestic animals: plow cultivation · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
No	1,006	85%
Yes, from before European contact	154	13%
Yes, adopted after contact	22	2%
No record	109

The animal-drawn plough is one of the inventions that separated the agrarian history of Eurasia from that of the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania. In the atlas, it was in use before European contact in 154 societies.

Who works the fields?

EA054 · Sex differences: agriculture · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
Mostly or only women	260	27%
Mostly or only men	242	25%
No agriculture	241	25%
Women and men, in equal parts	233	24%
No record	315

Where agriculture existed, women did most of the work in 260 societies and men in 242. The difference follows the tool: the hoe stayed more often in women's hands, the plough almost only in men's.

Who makes the pots?

EA047 · Sex differences: pottery making · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
Mostly or only women	357	49%
No pottery	310	42%
Mostly or only men	46	6%
Women and men	13	2%
Industrial production, sex irrelevant	8	1%
No record	557

Pottery is the craft with the sharpest sex division in the atlas: women only in 345 societies, men only in 42. Industrial production, where sex is irrelevant, appears in eight.

Who weaves?

EA045 · Sex differences: weaving · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
No weaving	447	57%
Mostly or only women	196	25%
Mostly or only men	102	13%
Women and men	27	3%
Industrial production, sex irrelevant	13	2%
No record	506

Loom weaving is women's craft in 196 societies and men's in 102. More than half the societies with a record did not weave at all: they wore skins, beaten bark or bought cloth.

Who builds the houses?

EA049 · Sex differences: house construction · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
Mostly or only men	436	76%
Mostly or only women	78	14%
Women and men	58	10%
No houses are built	3	1%
No record	716

House building is men's work in 436 societies out of 575. Women did most or all of the building in 78, every one of them a nomadic or semi-nomadic society, where the house was a shelter carried from place to place.

How are things carried over land?

SCCS13 · Land Transport (Especially regarding Food Transport) · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
On people's backs	108	58%
On pack animals	41	22%
On animal-drawn sleds or travois	13	7%
In animal-drawn carts	12	6%
In motor vehicles	11	6%
No record	1

In 108 of 185 societies, people carried everything on their backs, often with a strap across the forehead. The animal-drawn wheel appears in 12.

Is there money?

SCCS17 · Money (Media of Exchange) and Credit · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
No, no medium of exchange	77	42%
Foreign currency	42	23%
Tokens of conventional value	26	14%
Their own currency	26	14%
Useful goods serve as money	12	7%
No record	3

In 77 of 183 societies there was no medium of exchange at all. Their own coinage or paper money existed in 26.

Property and inheritance (2)

Who inherits the land?

EA074 · Inheritance rule for real property (land) · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
The sons	354	41%
No one: land is not inherited	223	26%
The father's-line kin, before the sons	90	11%
The mother's-line kin	60	7%
All the children	55	6%
The children, daughters less	43	5%
The sister's sons	31	4%
No record	435

Inheritance by all children, daughters and sons alike, the form in European civil codes, appears in 55 societies. In 223 there was no individual property in land, hence nothing to inherit. Murdock warned that these particular codes had proved 'inadequate' and fit societies with communal property poorly.

Is the inheritance split equally, or does one take it all?

EA075 · Inheritance distribution for real property (land) · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
In equal parts	307	37%
The eldest takes most	248	30%
Land is not inherited	223	27%
The youngest takes most	22	3%
Whoever is judged most capable	20	2%
No record	471

Equal division and primogeniture, in which the eldest takes most, were recorded in 307 and 248 societies respectively. The opposite rule, inheritance by the youngest, appears in 22.

Power, law and war (7)

How many levels of authority sit above the village?

EA033 · Jurisdictional hierarchy beyond local community · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
None	525	45%
One, for instance a chief over a few villages	341	30%
Two	162	14%
Three, for instance a state	83	7%
Four, for instance a large state	44	4%
No record	136

In 525 societies out of 1,155 there was no political authority above the local community. The state with three or four levels, the form nearly everyone lives under today, was recorded in 127.

How is the village head chosen?

EA072 · Political succession · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
Inherited through the father's line	408	44%
Election or formal consensus	116	12%
There is no such office	109	12%
Inherited through the mother's line	101	11%
Informal consensus	87	9%
Influence, wealth or standing	45	5%
Appointment by a higher authority	43	5%
Age or seniority	28	3%
No record	354

Inheritance through the father's line is the most frequent record. Election, by vote or by a recognised form of consensus, appears in 116 societies, and informal consensus in 87. In 109 there was no such office at all.

Are there social classes?

EA066 · Class differentiation: primary · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
No	538	49%
A hereditary aristocracy and commoners	228	21%
Wealth distinctions, no hereditary classes	217	20%
Several classes, tied to occupations	86	8%
An elite that controls the land	40	4%
No record	182

The absence of any class distinction among free people was recorded in 538 societies out of 1,109. A hereditary aristocracy, in 228.

Is there slavery?

EA070 · Slavery: type · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
No	546	49%
Yes, hereditary	227	20%
Yes, with no information on inheritance	217	19%
Yes, but temporary, not inherited	131	12%
No record	170

Slavery was recorded, in one form or another, in 575 societies out of 1,121, just over half. In 227, the status was inherited.

How much respect does being a warrior bring?

SCCS903 · Prestige Associated with Being a Soldier or Warrior · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
Some, but you need not be a warrior to have influence	64	42%
A great deal: it matters for every man	61	40%
No special respect	26	17%
No record	35

In 61 societies out of 151, being a warrior mattered for every man. In 26, a man who fought received no special respect.

How often is there war between communities of the same people?

SCCS891 · Frequency of Internal War Otterbein (1970: 3, 84, 143) Definition of Internal War · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
Infrequent	89	56%
Frequent	54	34%
Continual	17	11%
No record	26

The code tracks war between neighbouring, culturally related political communities, not feuds between families. 'Infrequent' is the most frequent record, but in 71 societies out of 160 internal war was frequent or continual.

How is war against outsiders regarded?

SCCS907 · Value of War: Violence/War against Non-members of the Group · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
Valued, even enjoyed	72	49%
A necessary evil	51	35%
Avoided and condemned	23	16%
No record	40

In 72 societies out of 146, war was valued and even enjoyed. In 23 it was avoided and condemned.

Body and illness (6)

Why do people fall ill? Spirits

SCCS654 · Theories of Spirit Aggression · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
The main explanation	74	56%
An important explanation, among others	37	28%
A minor explanation	18	14%
Absent	2	2%
No record	55

Murdock coded, for each society, how much weight each explanation of illness carried. Spirit aggression was the main explanation in 74 societies out of 131 and was entirely absent from two.

Why do people fall ill? Sorcery

SCCS655 · Theories of Sorcery · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
An important explanation, among others	45	35%
A minor explanation	45	35%
The main explanation	24	18%
Absent	16	12%
No record	56

Sorcery, in the sense of a learned technique with objects and formulas, was the main explanation of illness in 24 societies and an important one in another 45.

Why do people fall ill? Innate witchcraft

SCCS656 · Theories of Witchcraft · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
Absent	81	62%
A minor explanation	24	18%
An important explanation, among others	17	13%
The main explanation	9	7%
No record	55

Murdock separated learned sorcery from the innate malign power of certain persons, which he calls witchcraft. The latter was absent from 81 societies out of 131 and was the main explanation in nine, all of them in Africa or around the Mediterranean.

Why do people fall ill? Infection

SCCS645 · Theories of Infection · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
Absent	91	75%
A minor explanation	30	25%
The main explanation	1	1%
No record	64

Infection, the idea that illness comes from something entering the body from outside, was the main explanation in one society out of 122 and absent from 91. It is the atlas's clearest measure of the distance between today's medicine and that of the societies described.

Is circumcision practised, and at what age?

EA037 · Male genital mutilations · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
No	746	67%
Yes, in adolescence	117	10%
Yes, at an unspecified age	97	9%
Yes, in childhood	96	9%
Yes, at birth or in the first two years	42	4%
Yes, in adulthood	18	2%
No record	175

Circumcision as a rule was recorded in 370 societies out of 1,116. The most often noted age is adolescence, when the operation is part of a rite of passage; circumcision at birth, the custom in Judaism and in American hospitals, appears in 13.

How long after a birth does the couple abstain?

EA036 · Post-partum sex taboos · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
One to six months	120	32%
Up to a month	74	20%
One to two years	73	20%
Over two years	58	16%
Six months to a year	39	10%
Not at all	8	2%
No record	919

The taboo that asks the mother to abstain while she breastfeeds lasted more than a year in 131 societies out of 372. The absence of any taboo was recorded in eight.

Death (3)

Do the remains get a second burial?

SCCS1850 · Secondary Bone/Body Treatment: Original Scale · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
No	101	62%
Yes, for almost all adults	38	23%
Yes, depending on rank or group	13	8%
Yes, in other forms or circumstances	10	6%
No record	24

Secondary burial, in which the remains are treated again, usually dug up, cleaned and laid to rest elsewhere, is attested on every continent. In 38 societies out of 162 it was the rule for almost all adults, and in 13 it depended on rank or group membership.

Are there ghosts?

SCCS1960 · Ghosts Present · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
Yes	58	98%
No	1	2%
No record	127

Of the 59 societies coded by Rosenblatt and colleagues for mourning, 58 held a belief in ghosts, that is, dead people who can still be met by the living. Belief in ghosts was present, then, in almost every society of this small sample.

Do dead adults return in a new life?

SCCS1998 · Belief in Reincarnation of Deceased Adults · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
No	33	62%
A strong belief	9	17%
A weak belief	8	15%
A moderate belief	3	6%
No record	133

Belief in the reincarnation of adults was absent from 33 societies out of 53 and strong in nine. The sample is small, and the figures concern only the societies in it.

Gods, ritual and play (5)

Is there a supreme god, and does it care about morality?

EA034 · Religion: high gods · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
No supreme god	277	36%
Exists, but takes no part in human affairs	258	33%
Exists, intervenes and upholds morality	198	26%
Exists and intervenes, but does not judge morality	42	5%
No record	516

A creator god who judges human conduct, the idea in Christianity and Islam, was recorded in 198 societies out of 775. In 258, a supreme god existed but took no part in human affairs, and in 277 there was none at all.

Are there trance states, and how are they explained?

EA112 · Trance states · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
Trance is explained, at least sometimes, as possession	281	43%
Trance exists, without a belief in possession	135	21%
No trance and no belief in possession	118	18%
Both trance and possession exist, but separately	79	12%
A belief in possession exists; trance is not recorded	45	7%
No record	633

Erika Bourguignon coded 658 societies by whether they know trance states and whether they explain them as possession by a spirit. The absence of any trance was recorded in 118. In 281, trance was explained, at least sometimes, as possession.

What kinds of games are played?

EA035 · Games · Ethnographic Atlas, D-PLACE edition v3.2.1

Answer	Societies	%
Only games of strategy	250	51%
Only games of physical skill	106	22%
Strategy, skill and chance	58	12%
Strategy and skill	39	8%
No game with a winner	26	5%
Skill and chance	5	1%
Only games of chance	2	under 1%
Strategy and chance	0	0%
No record	805

The atlas counts only games with a winner. Games of strategy, such as chess or go, were recorded on their own in 250 societies out of 486. Games of chance were absent from 421, and 26 societies had no game with a winner at all.

Are the gods and spirits male or female?

SCCS576 · Sex of Gods and Spirits and Other Super-natural Beings · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
Males more numerous or more powerful	24	36%
Both sexes, alike	20	30%
More males but equal power, or the reverse	13	19%
All male	10	15%
No record	119

In the 67 societies with a record, supernatural beings were all male in ten, and equally numerous or powerful across both sexes in 20.

Had Christianity, Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism reached them?

SCCS2002 · World Religions (1807) · Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, D-PLACE edition v3.2

Answer	Societies	%
No, their own religion	116	62%
Christianity	30	16%
Islam	26	14%
Buddhism	10	5%
Hinduism	4	2%
No record	0

At the date of observation, 116 of the 186 societies in the closer sample kept their own religion. Islam had reached 26, Christianity 30, Buddhism ten and Hinduism four, to varying depths.

Method and sources

The groupings on this page are the author's. Each answer merges one or more source codes, listed in the question's record, and the denominator of every count is the number of societies with a code under that heading. Codes that do not describe the practice (for instance 'present, but no data on the sex of those who do it') are kept out of the denominator and shown in the record. No value, coordinate or date has been added to what is in the datasets.

The dots on the map are the D-PLACE coordinates, nudged slightly so that they do not cover one another; a dot is the place of the observation, not a people's territory. The coastline is from Natural Earth. The language family is Glottolog's, through the language code attached to each society in D-PLACE. The 'by language family' option colours the eight families with the most societies in the atlas and leaves the rest grey; in the grouped rows the dots are ordered by region or family, so that related groups read as blocks. Related languages can reflect a shared history; no count on the page is adjusted for that relatedness.

Only the questions you answered and for which the society has a record are compared. A society enters the ranking if it has a record for at least seven of the questions you answered, or for all of them if you answered fewer than seven. Societies are ordered by the share of differing answers among those compared, in decreasing order, then by the number of compared questions, then alphabetically. A missing record never counts as a difference. The ten questions are: when two people marry, who gives wealth to whom, who lives under the same roof, at what age does breastfeeding end, what shape is the house, are the animals milked, is the inheritance split equally, or does one take it all, how many levels of authority sit above the village, is circumcision practised, and at what age, do the remains get a second burial, is there a supreme god, and does it care about morality. The codes are those of the D-PLACE editions v3.2.1 and v3.2, kept because at residence they distinguish twelve codes where edition v3.3 folds them into ten; the counts on this page are identical in both.

D-PLACE

Kirby, K. R., Gray, R. D., Greenhill, S. J. et al. (2016). 'D-PLACE: A Global Database of Cultural, Linguistic and Environmental Diversity', PLOS ONE 11(7). The two datasets below are the D-PLACE editions, distributed in CLDF format; the aggregated D-PLACE bundle was not read. Licence CC BY-NC 4.0.

d-place.org/

Ethnographic Atlas

Murdock, G. P. (1967). Ethnographic Atlas, University of Pittsburgh Press; with J. Patrick Gray's corrections (1999). Derived dataset: Murdock, G. P., Textor, R., Barry, H., White, D. R., Gray, J. P., Divale, W. T., 'D-PLACE dataset derived from Murdock et al. 1999 “Ethnographic Atlas”', edition v3.2.1, Zenodo (version DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17602181). Licence CC BY-NC 4.0.

doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17602181

Standard Cross-Cultural Sample

Murdock, G. P., White, D. R. (1969). 'Standard Cross-Cultural Sample', Ethnology 8(4), 329–369. Derived dataset: 'D-PLACE dataset derived from Murdock and White 1969 “Standard Cross-Cultural Sample”', edition v3.2, Zenodo (version DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17601873). The codes used here were published by Barry and Paxson (1971), Broude and Greene (1976), Whyte (1978), Murdock (1980), Nammour (1974), Murdock and Morrow (1970), Murdock and Wilson (1972), Schroeder (2001), Rosenblatt, Walsh and Jackson (2011). Licence CC BY-NC 4.0.

doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17601873

Glottolog

Hammarström, H., Forkel, R., Haspelmath, M., Bank, S. (2025). Glottolog 5.3. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Licence CC BY 4.0.

glottolog.org/

Natural Earth

Coastline at 1:110 million, public domain.