Feo Takahari
Auror
Then I guess the question for me is, what do I do when my story requires a depiction of a society I don't live in? How do I portray that society fairly and accurately?
If I may give a tentative answer, I believe that you can understand a society insofar as you can relate it to ones you understand. For instance, if one society burns its dead to free them from this world, one buries its dead until the day they will wake, and one eats its dead so that their power will be passed on, all three have a tradition that involves honoring and respecting the dead. If you have any connection with honoring the dead, you can tap into those emotions when depicting another society's funerary customs. (When you pull away the false exoticism, I think any societal trait can be understood in this way--I once read a book that revolved around the morality of ancient China, and realized halfway through it that I'd seen all this before in books about the American South.)
P.S. I should note that I've written and published a story that takes place in a society I don't come from. I'm not holding it up as an example of anything, just admitting that I have a dog in this fight. (I didn't do anything in particular with local traditions, instead relying on obvious universals like shame and loneliness.)
If I may give a tentative answer, I believe that you can understand a society insofar as you can relate it to ones you understand. For instance, if one society burns its dead to free them from this world, one buries its dead until the day they will wake, and one eats its dead so that their power will be passed on, all three have a tradition that involves honoring and respecting the dead. If you have any connection with honoring the dead, you can tap into those emotions when depicting another society's funerary customs. (When you pull away the false exoticism, I think any societal trait can be understood in this way--I once read a book that revolved around the morality of ancient China, and realized halfway through it that I'd seen all this before in books about the American South.)
P.S. I should note that I've written and published a story that takes place in a society I don't come from. I'm not holding it up as an example of anything, just admitting that I have a dog in this fight. (I didn't do anything in particular with local traditions, instead relying on obvious universals like shame and loneliness.)