Queshire
Istar
Quick survey; what all do you guys think I need to include if I want to build a believable, fleshed out culture for my world?
I would say to start with history, and that in a large part starts with geography as Opiucha said. Give them an early history, ask yourself what it would mean to a primitive culture, and then start building from there, fleshing out some more history as needed. All cultures will change over time, and major events will have significant impacts (take a look at the people of Southern Spain before/during/after the period of Almohad rule).
Culture is not the same as religion, but the two are not independent. In fact, I think that is the most important thing about creating a culture/civ/society for fiction - remember that nothing is independent of anything else. Religion will affect culture will affect politics will affect morals will affect religion.
I would say to start with history, and that in a large part starts with geography as Opiucha said. Give them an early history, ask yourself what it would mean to a primitive culture, and then start building from there, fleshing out some more history as needed. All cultures will change over time, and major events will have significant impacts (take a look at the people of Southern Spain before/during/after the period of Almohad rule).
Quick survey; what all do you guys think I need to include if I want to build a believable, fleshed out culture for my world?
my current method is to take real historical cultures and mix up their characteristics to produce something new.
Saying that a person 'stuck' to his previous culture is problematic. Culture is a society and group trait, not the trait of any single person. Furthermore, it is the sum of an extremely diverse set of things - including religion itself. It all adds up to my original stance: no part of a society/civilization is truly independent from the whole. You cannot remove any single aspect without affecting all of the rest.