Moieties and/or SIBS occur in all the major culture areas of North and South America with the exception of Eskimo and Patagonia. In North America they are also lacking on the Pacific Coast from Vancouver Island to California and in all but the northern part of the Plateau. Data are incomplete for much of Argentina and Brazil and for parts of Meso-America.

Many Siberian nomads are organized into patrilineal sibs or into extended families stressing the male line. The Koryak, Kamchadal and Chukchi are sibless, forming a continuous bilateral area with the Aleut and Eskimo on both sides of Bering Sea. Moieties and sibs are not characteristic of China, Japan, and Mongolia, but there is consistent stressing of the paternal line, whatever the kinship system. Patri-sibs occur in Manchuria.