I wrote this one with the word ‘alien’, but it could be used for any non-human species or races within a fictional setting.
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1) How long do the aliens live for, on average, in human years?
2) How many sexes do the aliens have? What is the biological purpose of the different sexes?
3) Are there any particular gender roles? Is one gender expected to work while the other looks after the children? Are duties shared? Are there ways any particular gender is expected to act or speak?
4) What sort of diet do the aliens have? Are there any particular delicacies they enjoy?
5) Do the aliens have many different cultures, like humans, or is there only one/just a few?
6) How are the young educated, if at all? Are individuals formally educated their whole life?
7) Do they have a monetary or barter system? Are there jobs?
8) What kinds of naming conventions do the aliens have? Are names, like in most human cultures, separated by gender, or do people gain new names after large life events or with age?
9) Are there any other species they live peacefully alongside? Or any that they keep as pets?
10) What sort of houses/nests/dens do they live in?
11) On the whole, what do they think of bathing?
12) Name some popular past times.
13) Is there a hierarchy within their social structure(s)?
14) Do they wear clothing? What sort of clothing, if any?
15) How about jewellery or anything a human might consider superfluous?
16) Do they have TV or an equivalent? How about books?
17) What sort of environment(s) are they usually most comfortable in? Are they aquatic, arboreal, do they dwell in grasslands or tundras?
18) What are some cultural attitudes towards the elderly? How about towards the young?
19) In general, what do they make of sexual orientation and relationships? Is it odd to have a sustained relationship? Do they have an analogue to homo/hetero/bisexuality? Do they go on 'dates’, or just mate?
20) Name one thing these aliens might do that an average human from your country/culture would find strange or foreign.
