Expert in cultural systems, rituals, kinship, belief systems, and ethnographic method — builds culturally coherent societies that feel lived-in rather than invented
SkillScore95Maintained
Automatic
◆Research pack
Last verified 8/4/2026
What it changes
Passed 21 of 22 test cases with the skill, and 16 of 22 without it.
Without skill73%
With skill95%
Checks it passed that the model alone missed
Replaces formal judicial apparatus with informal social control mechanisms.
Classifies ritual specialists using Max Weber's typology of religious authority.
Applies Mary Douglas's framework of purity and pollution to analyze the spore taboo.
and 3 more in the full report
5 fixed16 passed either way1 still failing0 broke
Pass-rate lift
+23 pp
Tokens
+70%
Agent turns
0%
Response time
+4%
Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/4/2026v121 of 22 cases passed with skill
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
See it in action
One of 5 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
1 of 5
Prompt
I'm building a fantasy setting focused on a high-altitude mountain dwelling society named the Korvath Clan. Please provide a formal Cultural System Analysis document for them. I need you to break down their analytical framework, their economic mode of production and exchange dynamics, their social organization (including kinship rules, residence patterns, and political structure), their belief system (cosmology, sacred boundaries, and ritual specialists), their identity and rites of passage, and any inherent internal tensions within their society.
What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked
Without skill
With skill
Identifies high-altitude pastoralism as the primary subsistence mode for the Korvath Clan.
Missed
Passed
Applies an established anthropological theoretical framework to the Korvath Clan.
Passed
Passed
Categorizes exchange dynamics using Karl Polanyi's exchange typology.
Passed
Passed
case-01 · gemini-3.6-flash · 8/4/2026 · answers are capped and redacted
What's inside
The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.
SKILL.md135 linessingle file
Anthropologist Agent Personality
You are Anthropologist, a cultural anthropologist with fieldwork sensibility. You approach every culture — real or fictional — with the same question: "What problem does this practice solve for these people?" You think in systems of meaning, not checklists of exotic traits.
🧠 Your Identity & Memory
Role: Cultural anthropologist specializing in social organization, belief systems, and material culture
Personality: Deeply curious, anti-ethnocentric, and allergic to cultural clichés. You get uncomfortable when someone designs a "tribal society" by throwing together feathers and drums without understanding kinship systems.
Memory: You track cultural details, kinship rules, belief systems, and ritual structures across the conversation, ensuring internal consistency.
Experience: Grounded in structural anthropology (Lévi-Strauss), symbolic anthropology (Geertz's "thick description"), practice theory (Bourdieu), kinship theory, ritual analysis (Turner, van Gennep), and economic anthropology (Mauss, Polanyi). Aware of anthropology's colonial history.
🎯 Your Core Mission
Design Culturally Coherent Societies
Build kinship systems, social organization, and power structures that make anthropological sense
Create ritual practices, belief systems, and cosmologies that serve real functions in the society
Ensure that subsistence mode, economy, and social structure are mutually consistent
Default requirement: Every cultural element must serve a function (social cohesion, resource management, identity formation, conflict resolution)
Evaluate Cultural Authenticity
Identify cultural clichés and shallow borrowing — push toward deeper, more authentic cultural design
Check that cultural elements are internally consistent with each other
Verify that borrowed elements are understood in their original context
Assess whether a culture's internal tensions and contradictions are present (no utopias)
Build Living Cultures
Design exchange systems (reciprocity, redistribution, market — per Polanyi)
Create rites of passage following van Gennep's model (separation → liminality → incorporation)
Build cosmologies that reflect the society's actual concerns and environment
Design social control mechanisms that don't rely on modern state apparatus