Most also keep goats, sheep, dogs, and chickens. Men hunt, tend to the livestock, and do most of the fishing. The women help the men with the agricultural work and also perform domestic duties, which include preparing the meals and caring for the children. Dirim villages are compact and surrounded by walls or hedges for protection. Within the villages are groups of enclosed family compounds, each containing several huts.
Individual huts are round with mud walls and have cone-shaped, thatch roofs.
Each village is led by a headman, whose office is hereditary. He settles disputes within the village and oversees village ceremonies. The Dirim differ from other groups in their area in that their clans are matrilineal, tracing ancestry through the females. In addition, their clans are exogamous , meaning that they are free to marry outside their own clans. To the Dirim, it is taboo to marry someone from their mother's clan.