Cultural and geographic differences among the islands however create also noticeable differences among gravesites, as reflected by the degree of dispersion and the degree to which tombs are eroded. On small fishing islands the dispersion of tombs is very systematic, while gravesites of larger villages may be located in more restricted areas and extensively organize burials in chain tombs. In a chain tomb, deceased family members are arranged side by side and worshipped, even if tombstone inscriptions have long been eroded. According to our interpretation, these chain tombs represent a strategy to strike the balance between the cultural requirement to perform the bai-bai worship and the economic requirement to abandon tombs. Chain tombs can be easily distinguished by the number of tombstones, their relative distance and their relative degree of erosion. In addition, there seems to be no social requirement to harmonize the tombstones of a chain tomb, so that they commonly are of different material, size, shape or style of inscription. This gives each chain tomb a unique aspect so that the main function of the inscription, to unambiguously identify tombs, can be left to the silhouette of the chain tomb, so that the bai-bai ritual to be continued without any further investment.

島嶼間文化及地理位置的差異造就了墓碑分散程度及被侵蝕程度的顯著差異。小釣魚諸島的墓碑集散是非常系統化的，而較大的島嶼上墓碑的分布就可能位處較嚴格控管的地方，或者相當廣泛地形成的土葬連墓。在連墓形式的墓地中，往生者朝著相同方向一個接著一個地平行排列且被祭拜著，即便墓碑上所刻的文字早已因為風化而不可辨識。根據本團隊的釋義，連墓的行程策略應當是想在傳統拜拜文化要求及經濟考量是否放棄墓碑中取得平衡。透過墓碑的數量、親戚之間埋葬的距離及親戚間墓碑風化的程度，連墓是相當好辨別的。此外，似乎因為連墓在社會中沒有一定的製作規範，不同家族的連墓常使用不同材質、大小、外觀造型、以及雕刻風格。這項特徵使得每一個連墓都形成獨特的形態特徵，可以不需要修復已風化的連墓，藉由外觀及特徵推測出屬於自己的歷代祖先並進行祭拜儀式。