Uses and abuses of the Murdock Atlas in social science research
This workshop, timed to follow the Economic History Society conference, aims to bring together scholars who have engaged with the Murdock Atlas in their research, and who are interested in an open, cross-disciplinary, and forward-looking conversation on the merits, limitations, and pitfalls of using the Atlas in social science research.
Organisers: Leigh Gardner, LSE, Michiel de Haas, Wageningen, and Tom Westland, Wageningen
The Ethnographic Atlas, drawn up by George Murdock in the 1950s and 1960s, is a widely used resource in economics, political science and even in evolutionary psychology. The Atlas tabulates a broad range of attributes for over 1200 pre-industrial societies across the entire globe, with notable granularity for Africa and North America in particular. For Africa, Murdock also drew up a map with ethnic homelands. Later scholars have matched the Atlas and the Map to create a spatial dataset which has sparked a large and influential recent literature.
In this literature, researchers have leveraged various aspects of the Atlas, each with their own empirical and conceptual challenges. One of the most influential uses of the Atlas involves the spatial matching of past ‘ethnic characteristics’ with outcomes today, for example to measure the lasting impact of pre-colonial states or gender norms. Others have specifically looked at the location of ethnic borders in Africa, for example to evaluate how they coincide with colonial borders.
As use of the Atlas has expanded, so has criticism of the data it contains. How reliable is the Atlas? Is the research that underpins it not well past its due date? And to what extent can potential weaknesses be overcome? Research outputs using the Atlas may cite these critiques, but rarely have the space to engage with questions of data quality in any significant depth. Our aim is to bring together scholars who have engaged with the Atlas in their research and are interested in an open, cross-disciplinary, and forward-looking conversation on the merits, limitations and pitfalls of using Murdock’s Atlas in social science research.
To this aim we are organizing a 1-day workshop at the LSE in London on April 13, 2026. This workshop is timed to follow the Economic History Society conference. We invite scholars working on any aspect of the Murdock Atlas as well as related datasets in comparative anthropology to participate. Potential topics include (but are not limited to):
- Empirical work assessing the validity of aspects of Murdock’s Atlas;
- In depth historical critique of Murdock’s ethnographic work in the context of one or multiple specific societies;
- Efforts to improve upon or update the Murdock Atlas, such as adding new data, link to other sources or apply new statistical techniques;
- Replications of past research using the Murdock Atlas;
- Conceptual critiques of aspects of the Murdock Atlas.
After the workshop, we seek to compile a special issue in Economic History of Developing Regions bringing together 5 to 7 selected papers. Preferably, the authors of these papers have presented at the workshop, but we will also consider independent submissions of scholars who have not attended the workshop.
Please submit an abstract or indicate your interest in attending the workshop through this form by no later than 15th January 2026.
9:00-9:15 Welcome and introduction by conveners
9:15-11:15 New Methods
Sarah Ferber (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg) “Updating Murdock: A New Ethnic Group Map for Sub-Saharan Africa”
Pietro Querci (University Trento, University of Bolzano) and Lauren Coetzee (University of Luxembourg) “Beyond Murdock: Polygyny Across Time: European Travel Narratives and the Dynamic History of African Marriage Systems”
Julio Solis Arce (Harvard University) “Ethnographic Perspectives”
11:15-11:45 Coffee and tea
11:45-13:05 New Lenses
Boris Gershman (American University) and Tinatin Mumladze (American University of Sharjah), “Common Ancestry, Uncommon Findings: Revisiting Cross-Cultural Research in Economics”
Etienne Le Rossignol (University of Namur) and Gaël Perrot (Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne) “Ethnicity and Place in African Opinions”
13:05-14:00 Lunch
14:00-16:00 Case studies
Mariana Martins Cardoso (University of Manchester), Soeren J. Henn (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Nuno Palma (University of Manchester) “The Ethnographic and Institutional Structure of Seventeenth-Century Angola”
Aharon deGrassi (College of the Desert) “Kinship, politics and territory in the EA: Reconsiderations based on archives and historical GIS for the Suku, southern DR Congo”
Christiaan de Swardt (RWI-Leibniz Institute for Economic Research; Ruhr-Universität Bochum), Renate Hartwig (RWI-Leibniz Institute for Economic Research; Ruhr-Universität Bochum) and Emmanuel Nshakira-Rukundo (RWI-Leibniz Institute for Economic Research) “Revisiting Murdock’s Atlas: Validating Historical Marriage Institutions in Uganda’s Contemporary Legal and Socioeconomic Context”
16:00-16:30 Coffee/tea
16:30-17:30 Closing discussion: next steps forward in using cross-cultural data
17:30 Drinks and nibbles, 8th floor, CKK
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