Inter-Cultural Influence

[Golan2072]

One thing I'd love to see more of in Traveller, or other sci-fi for that matter, is inter-cultural influence. In most sci-fi settings, aliens have, for example, their religion, their food and their clothes, while humans have theirs; cross-influence is rare: how many humans in sci-fi settings worship alien gods and adopt some alien cultural traits, and how many aliens convert to human religions and adopt human cultural traits?

This is something I'm devoting some thought to in my next sci-fi settings (these stars are ours/ashes of empire). I'd like to hear your thoughts on that matter.

 

[JimMarn]

I've encountered it off and on over the years I've read sf. Sometimes it seems just tacked on. Ursula K. Le Guin does a very exccellent job of it.

 

[robject]

One thing I'd love to see more of in Traveller, or other sci-fi for that matter, is inter-cultural influence. In most sci-fi settings, aliens have, for example, their religion, their food and their clothes, while humans have theirs; cross-influence is rare: how many humans in sci-fi settings worship alien gods and adopt some alien cultural traits, and how many aliens convert to human religions and adopt human cultural traits?

This is something I'm devoting some thought to in my next sci-fi settings (these stars are ours/ashes of empire). I'd like to hear your thoughts on that matter.

I had this in the first Traveller games I ever ran: an alien religion that had been adopted and modified by humans, involving incense, supplication before graven images, and taking internally what may or may not be poisons. I think after the transfer into humanity the religion had little left that looked alien, except for the symbology. The hallucinations were certainly humanic.

 

[Orc65001]

The influence of disease

Perhaps not cultural transfer, but it would have had significant effects upon the minor human races upon first contact with Solomani.
AFAIK there is only one documented transfer of disease between human (sub-)species, and that was in the First Contact/First Solomani Rim War in which the Vilani were seriously affected by Solomani diseases, for which they had no immunity.
Having no immunity to these diseases would make many simple childhood diseases lethal to these populations. I imagine those minor human races experiencing something akin to the die-offs experienced by indigenous earth populations during the colonial period here on earth.
Naturally there would be some among each population that would develop immunity, but not before a significant proportion of the population had died. This first rapidly depopulate a homeworld and seriously disrupting the social structure. The resulting chaos and population vacuum would have been quickly filled by humanitarian efforts by the Solomani (again this is documented in the Rule of Man I think or the previous section of the history). Solomani 'aid workers' would have moved in to provide medical care and assist in or take over supporting the local infrastructure, invariably bringing with them their own culture. As the local populations realised where the diseases were originating, they could have attempted to expel the Solomani resulting in isolated violence or planetary resistance efforts, ultimately these efforts would have failed, primarily because of losses to disease.
For many minor human races the result would have been a subjugation (deliberate or not) of them and their culture. What remained of their culture would be mixed with the dominant culture of the Solomani. For many this would only serve to reinforce their status as a 'minor race.'

 

[flykiller]

how many humans in sci-fi settings worship alien gods and adopt some alien cultural traits

well there was the skymarshall omar anoke who worshipped behemecoatyl ... but the stewardess thought he should be killed.

 

[flykiller]

but not before a significant proportion of the population had died.

I have read that when the aztecs realized what a serious threat cortez and his spaniards were they mustered one million men to attack, but as they assembled smallpox struck. game over.

 

[Orc65001]

I have read that when the aztecs realized what a serious threat cortez and his spaniards were they mustered one million men to attack, but as they assembled smallpox struck. game over.

Provided the local population has developed in total isolation from the invader, like the amerindian peoples, pacific islanders and the australian aborigines, the invasion will be accompanied by disease epidemics. However if there has been any continuous contact, then the local population is likely to have been previously exposed and will therefore have the same immunities as the invaders.

This means that any non-Solomani human race coming in contact (directly or indirectly) with the Solomani would have experienced epidemics of earth diseases during or just prior to the Rule of Man. The exception would be those human races that had diverged significantly from the original human genome (am I using that word correctly?). Given that diseases are transferrable across species on earth, that divergence would have to be very significant indeed and would likely make such exceptions exceedingly rare.

Ok.. enough rambling, what I am getting at is this; almost all minor human races will have absorbed significant cultural elements from the dominant human culture. In the Imperium that would mean that a human minor race will have a culture comprising: indigenous/local culture, overlain by elements of Solomani culture and for those worlds located within the borders of the Ziru Sirka, a middle layer of Vilani culture as well.

 

[Kilgs]

A neat progression of cultural changes upon contact with a dead alien civilization is in Ian Douglas "Heritage Trilogy." It goes from hysteria from existing religions, to creation of new religions and then settles down into the norm. I really liked it since each book jumped several decades so there were good instances of cultural evolution based on <REDACTED SPOILERS> and stuff ;-)

2300AD has this a little bit with the Pentapods. The old Ranger module also discusses the Ebers and the cultural contacts/lessons/leeway provided between the human colonies and their people. It's a really good read.

I always wondered if more was ever done with the Sung (or planned). Since they were fairly integrated in their edge of space with humans but, based on their culture, expected humans to provide a lot to them.

 

[JimMarn]

One influence I haven't seen used is the Cargo Cult from WW2. US Army poeple would go into an area that was basically stone age peoples, build a run way, airplanes arrived, the locals got paid in food and other items.

After the war was over, for some years the locals built wooden planes, wooden radios, etc. to try and get the Cargo back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult

We discussed this in one of my university anthropology classes by a professor who had gone to Papua New Guinea. He told us it had mostly stopped, but there were a few peoples still doing it.

 

[flykiller]

Given that diseases are transferrable across species on earth, that divergence would have to be very significant indeed and would likely make such exceptions exceedingly rare.

actually such divergence might make susceptibility to alien diseases more common. alien diseases may not be designed to attack humans but this simultaneously would mean that humans are not designed to resist them. here on earth there are various fungi not designed to attack humans at all but which can outright digest humans anyway. the premise behind "war of the worlds" might be an understatement.

and not just diseases, also entire ecosystems. consider rabbits in australia or wild boars in texax or kudzu in the south united states.

 

[Hemdian]

One thing I'd love to see more of in Traveller, or other sci-fi for that matter, is inter-cultural influence. In most sci-fi settings, aliens have, for example, their religion, their food and their clothes, while humans have theirs; cross-influence is rare: how many humans in sci-fi settings worship alien gods and adopt some alien cultural traits, and how many aliens convert to human religions and adopt human cultural traits?

That's something I tried to include in my write-up of Yori. The population is a 60/40 split of alien (Zhurphani) to human yet the resultant culture is fairly homogenous … both races are well integrated thanks to the widespread adoption of the Zhurphani religion by the humans. Of course it works both ways; there are human (Vilani) influences evident in Yorian culture too.

(The write-up was part of the great TML 'Landgrab' initiative. How many here even remember that initiative? Maybe we should revive it?)

 

[aramis]

That's something I tried to include in my write-up of Yori. The population is a 60/40 split of alien (Zhurphani) to human yet the resultant culture is fairly homogenous … both races are well integrated thanks to the widespread adoption of the Zhurphani religion by the humans. Of course it works both ways; there are human (Vilani) influences evident in Yorian culture too.

(The write-up was part of the great TML 'Landgrab' initiative. How many here even remember that initiative? Maybe we should revive it?)

My landgrab file is still up... http://aramis.hostman.us/trav/wypoc.html

 

[Kilgs]

(The write-up was part of the great TML 'Landgrab' initiative. How many here even remember that initiative? Maybe we should revive it?)

Some of the new blood would likely love a new Landgrab!!