- Thread starter
- #21
TheCatholicCrow
Inkling
If you're looking for things you might have missed or overlooked, you might find it helpful to read THIS.
Is there any part of your culture that you think could use more work?
Rites of Passage are a pretty big thing in most cultures. You mark the transition from one social identity into another with a rite... which must be passed. They usually surround things like birth, death, puberty, and marriage.
Of course there's also Religion and Politics ... something people often forget about religion/culture is holidays People like to take time off with one another to celebrate even if there's not really anything you're celebrating in particular. Few things say to me "this is a convincing culture" like holidays. It gives you a strong sense that the community is united (if only for the day) and that they are connected not only to themselves but that they might feel themselves to be connected to the people that have gone before them. It suggests that were people (in your world) before them.
What's even better is that you can use holidays to draw on sentiments of any kind (hope: New Year's Day religious
assover, Christmas, Diwali familial: Mother's/Father's Day patriotic:Independence Day, Pearl Harbor Day, VE Day etc. then there's the others like Arbor Day & Groundhog Day). They each serve a purpose and say something unique about the culture not only in what/why you're celebrating but in how. What are the traditions? Is it a day for family or friends? I personally think family interaction is overlooked too frequently in fiction (probably because SO MANY stories revolve around only-child orphans).
Of course Gender is usually a big deal as well. Something I think is often forgotten when it comes to defining a culture's gender roles is that there is a difference between power and authority. For instance, while one gender (or even familial position such as the grandfather) might represent the family in tribal/local affairs, it does not mean that only he gets an opinion. He will probably consult with his wife who might be well integrated in the village network (for gossip because lots of ladies like to talk) and if he wants peace at home he darned well better take her advice and consult her in these matters before speaking for the family. One study found that women banded together (almost like a union or a guild) to look out for one another. They pressured their husbands to prevent a local man from beating his wife, breaking a deal etc. The women's network ran separately from the men's and while it initially appeared that the men were in charge, it was actually the women that ran the town and made most of the decisions while they gathered water or worked on laundry together. We're throwing around words like Patriarch and Matriarch but of course the complexity of it all can run much deeper ... as complex as you feel comfortable taking it. I forget which society the example above is from but they also found that not every woman had an equal voice. Newcomers had to earn a spot in the network by bringing her own gossip (a dangerous thing considering they were outsiders from other villages. Gossiping about the wrong member would piss them off and they'd cut her out of the circle).
Something I found interesting in (I believe the same society as above though it may have been a different one) - the concept of trading children to seal bonds and relationships among other tribes. If you had a 10 year old son and an 8 year old daughter (and another family had the same) you could trade daughters with one another. You'd raise the other girl as your own (teaching her to be loyal to your household) and when she came of age she'd marry your son. IDK there's so many different angles you can approach culture from. Any advice kind of depends on what you're looking to flesh out.
Hope this gives you a few ideas.
