How to complete the EDP
The following instructions were developed to ensure comparability across contributions to the EDP: please read them carefully before starting your entry. They will also help you to familiarise yourself with some terms and definitions used throughout the questionnaire.
It is crucial for the accuracy of cross-cultural studies that the items being compared actually coexisted in the same subgroup of a society at the same point in time [1]. To control as much as possible for variation within societies, the information provided should refer to a specific local group (the “focal community”) at a particular date (the “focal year”) for each society.
Before you start, please identify a specific year and locality of your fieldwork to use as “focal community” and “focal year” for your society. All the information you provide should describe the situation in the focal community in the focal year, even if it is not representative of the situation in the larger society as a whole.
The codes used in the EDP were developed for cross-cultural application, so they may not always be accurate descriptions of the situation in your focal community. Where this is the case, please use the comment box provided after each question in the EDP to add brief qualifying notes to your answer, or to specify additional information about the item.