I am currently writing my dissertation (I study Ancient History) on the development of a Messenian Identity in the Classical Period. During my degree there has never been the slightest mention of the study of ethnicities, yet somehow I chose to focus on it in the most important piece of writing in my life so far!
I have had to teach myself the fundamentals of ethnography and it occurred to me how central ethnicity is to us as a species. So central that we take it for granted.
I happened to read Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson (a book I cannot recommend highly enough) over the summer and looking back I realised how amazing of a worldbuilder Erikson is. He built into his work various ethnicities so subtly that I didn't even recognise them in reading them, they were just as natural to the world as the characters and the environment.
Erikson studied anthropology and this is obviously going to have had an impact on his writing. I was wondering how much you consider anthropology and ethnography when you are researching for your next work? I know it has now become a central aspect of my work in future!
I have had to teach myself the fundamentals of ethnography and it occurred to me how central ethnicity is to us as a species. So central that we take it for granted.
I happened to read Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson (a book I cannot recommend highly enough) over the summer and looking back I realised how amazing of a worldbuilder Erikson is. He built into his work various ethnicities so subtly that I didn't even recognise them in reading them, they were just as natural to the world as the characters and the environment.
Erikson studied anthropology and this is obviously going to have had an impact on his writing. I was wondering how much you consider anthropology and ethnography when you are researching for your next work? I know it has now become a central aspect of my work in future!