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Alien Culture Template

Social Structure

Form of family

Nuclear, extended, multigenerational, etc.?

Larger structure: clan, tribe, religious or political membership(s)

Marriage and divorce

Marriage restricted to within or outside the tribe, or to a specific other clan?

Monogamy or polygamy: polygyny and/or polyandry, concubinage, etc.?

Divorce: easy or difficult?

Attitudes toward adultery; patriarchy/matriarchy etc.

Government

Form of government: feudal, tribal, democratic, suzerainty, empire, etc.? Structure: centralized or decentralized?

How leaders are selected: Hereditarily, vote - from restricted or unlimited pool? (Some cultures have a mixture: with inheritance playing a role in the passage of power, but subject to veto or election by those ruled.)

Social rank Class structure Gradations: slave, serf, peasant, yeoman, nobility, royalty, and the distinctions between them, or gaps in the gradient? Mobility from one class to another: possible or not; if possible, how difficult? Etiquette and its enforcement How elaborate are social behavior codes? Are they different for different classes? How are they enforced: legal system, reduction in class, tabu, ostracism? Slavery Extent: how much of society is slave? Oppressiveness: do slaves have rights, how much and what kind, can they own slaves, etc.? Possibility of freedom: purchase, freedom if escape for a period, restrictions against owner emancipation, etc.

Religion

Cosmology and pantheon

Gods and their degree of involvement in mundane affairs.

How does religious affiliation affect the average adherent?

With the god worshiped?

With the other gods?

With the worshipers of other gods in society?

Spirits, ghosts, etc. - agents of the gods, opposition to the gods, or neither?

Liturgical form

Of what does worship consist: Ceremony, sacrifice, prayers, combinations?

Public or private?

Places: temple, natural site, portable, none in particular?

Magic

Is there a concept of magic?

Could everyone, at least in theory, use magic?

If not, who is qualified to learn it?

Shamanism

What form does shamanistic activity take: trance, vigil, vision, etc.?

Extent of physical healing as a function: magic or herbals, or both.

How does one become a shaman?

Funerary custom

How do they dispose of dead: burial, cremation, exposure, excarnation, ritual cannibalism, etc.

Ceremony involved:

ritual accompanying

body position: extended, arms to side or crossed, fetal, etc.

Coffin shape?

Grave goods?

Tabu regarding cemeteries or exposure sites?

Art

Graphic and sculpture (paintings, carvings, etc.)

Purely aesthetic or religious or either/both?

Amateur or professional?

Status of the artist in society.

Music and dance

Instruments used, including vocal.

Are dances religious or secular?

Status of performers in society.

Sports and games

Types of recreational activity.

Are they strictly work or combat related (barn raising, quilting bee, husking bee, fencing, wrestling) or other (ball games, riddles, board games), etc., and specific types?

Status of players in society.

Tattoo, scarification, body art and piercing

Type and extent, if any or taboos regarding such.

Class, gender or other restrictions?

Symbolism.

Other - That which did not fit the above.

Architecture

General type

Separate, living above business or livestock shelter, apartment, underground/above etc.)

Materials

Wood, wattle and daub, adobe, stone, etc.; roof: board, thatch, tile, etc.

Permanent, portable, or abandoned?

Sleeping facilities

Bed, hammock, on ground, etc.?

How different if on the move?

Cooking

Indoors, separate structure, or outside?

See Also Food.