Cultural units in cross-cultural research

In 1889, Galton argued that often traits diffuse across cultures and theref ore we could never really know if cultural traits arose independently as ad aptive responses or were a result of diffusion. With numerous hypothetical and actual examples we show that, statistically, there are no mechanical fi xes to this problem. We conclude by asserting that each cross-cultural rese arch question should find its own solution to Galton's problem and that, in fact, this is not a problem at all, but rather an asset which can be used to trace historical networks. (Galton's problem, cultural units, community, language, megacultural regions, Standard Cross-Cultural Sample).