Every culture has a gesture for trust. The shared cup. The broken kola nut. The cord around
two wrists. The blood in the wine. These gestures work because they require presence,
intention, and something given of yourself that cannot be taken back.
When you register with Depth, it asks you a question: how do people form trust where you
come from? The answer becomes part of your Level 1 layer, the first thing anyone learns
about you when you bond. It is a small act of cultural self-disclosure. It signals something
real before either party has said a word.
When two people bond, they see each other's metaphors side by side for the first time.
This is often the most interesting moment of the whole exchange.
Geographic defaults
Depth resolves an approximate region from your IP at registration and suggests a metaphor.
These are the defaults. Each entry carries the local name, the act at its centre, and the
sentence that travels with your bond record.
COUNTRY
TRADITION
PATTERNS
🇯🇵 Japan / San-san-kudo
In Japan, bride and groom sip sake from three shared cups to seal a bond across families.
🍶 We share the cup
Shared drinkCircle
🇨🇳 China / Sworn brotherhood
In China, the Oath of the Peach Garden is a shared drink with a spoken oath of loyalty.
🍵 We drink as brothers
Shared drinkSpoken oath
🇰🇷 Korea / Geonbae
In Korea, you pour into another's glass before your own. The act of giving before receiving is the trust.
🥂 Pour first, drink second
Shared drinkPour first
🇵🇭 Philippines / Sandugo
In the Philippines, the Sandugo blood compact mixes blood into wine, then both parties drink.
🩸 One blood
Blood pactShared drink
🇮🇩 Indonesia / Sirih pinang
In Indonesia, offering and accepting betel nut marks relationship. To refuse is to refuse relationship.
🌿 We chew together
Shared foodOffering accepted
🇮🇳 India / Prasad
In India, accepting food from another's hand is an act of deep trust. You allow their hands into your body.
🙏 What is yours becomes mine
Shared foodOffering accepted
🇳🇬 Nigeria / Iwa oji
In Nigeria (Igbo tradition), presenting, blessing, and breaking the kola nut is how every serious agreement begins.
🌰 Break the kola
Shared foodSpoken oath
🇬🇭 Ghana / Schnapps libation
In Ghana (Akan tradition), schnapps is poured for the ancestors. The earth and the dead are witnesses to the living.
🫗 We pour for the ancestors
Offering to ancestorsPour first
🇪🇹 Ethiopia / Buna ceremony
In Ethiopia, the coffee ceremony takes 45 minutes minimum. Three rounds. You cannot rush it. You cannot decline it.
☕ We take the time
Shared drinkTime ritual
🇿🇦 South Africa / Ubuntu shared meal
In South Africa, umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu: a person is a person through other persons. The shared meal is not courtesy, it is ontology.
🍽 I am because we eat together
Shared mealCircle
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia / Qahwa
In Saudi Arabia, accepting Arabic coffee seals the meeting. Your spoken word is the contract.
☕ Your word, my word
Shared drinkSpoken oath
🇮🇷 Iran / Sofreh-ye Aghd
In Iran, a sacred cloth is laid with symbolic items at commitment ceremonies, passed mother to daughter.
🪡 We lay the cloth
BindingOffering accepted
🇦🇷 Argentina / Mate circle
In Argentina, a single gourd is passed between people, refilled by the cebador who never drinks first. To be in the circle is to be trusted.
🧉 You're in the circle
Shared drinkCirclePour first
🇲🇽 Mexico / Lazo
In Mexico, a cord is looped in a figure-eight around two people's shoulders. Literally bound together.
🪢 We are tied
Binding
🇵🇪 Peru / Tinka
In Peru, chicha is poured onto the earth for Pachamama before drinking. The earth witnesses the bond.
🌍 We give to the ground first
Offering to earthShared drink
🇳🇴 Norway / Fóstbræðralag
In Norway, Norse foster brotherhood is sealed by blood let while passing under raised turf. Earth above and blood below, bound to each other and to place.
🌿 Under the same earth
Blood pactOffering to earth
🇬🇧 UK / Handfasting
In the UK, handfasting binds wrists with cord for a year and a day. The binding is the vow.
🧵 Tie the knot
BindingTime ritual
🇷🇸 Serbia / Pobratimstvo
In Serbia, Balkan sworn brotherhood was prevalent under the Ottoman era as solidarity among the oppressed.
⚔️ Chosen family
Spoken oathBlood pact
🇭🇺 Hungary / Blood and wine
In Hungary, nine tribal chiefs sealed their founding alliance by drinking from each other's blood.
🍷 We drink from one cup
Blood pactShared drink
Your own words
The suggestion is only a starting point. You can choose any metaphor from the full table,
or write your own in a single sentence. The question the interface asks is: how do people
form trust where you come from? The free answer is stored verbatim and shown alongside the
globe emoji. This keeps the language under the control of the people who live the customs,
not the people who built the protocol.