Writing Challenge: Creating a Culture... Backwards
Oct 23, 2020 4:25:24 GMT -6
Post by Nessa Arandur on Oct 23, 2020 4:25:24 GMT -6
Creating a Culture… Backwards
Hello my fellow writers!
When creating new races and peoples for our stories, one of the most important, if not the most important factor to consider is the environment around them. Environment, including flora and fauna, has an impact in almost every area of life, influencing clothing and fashion, social customs and structure, leadership/rulership, armies, diet, standards of modesty, marriage and social alliances, buildings and architecture, religious ceremonies or rituals (like burials, weddings, coronations, etc), and trade and relations with other races or peoples.
The ancient Egyptians lived in a very hot and dry land, where they depended on the seasonal waters of the Nile river for the welfare of their crops, and thus themselves. Due to this, the river Nile became a huge part of their culture and cultural identity. They dressed in light clothes because of the heat, and could have been considered “immodestly” dressed by the standards of other peoples and cultures. Ancient European tribes were completely different. It's colder in Europe, and so Europeans wore warmer clothes made from different materials or fibres, like wool, or leather, as opposed to linen or such as Egyptians wore. They had more arable land, but not as much overall land as Egyptians, and the land was divided up differently. These factors all effected trade and external relations.
These varied environments have basic elements that can be found here: Major Biomes of the World.
When most people world-build, they tend to start with a character or a culture, and not necessarily the world they live in. Your challenge, however, is to start from the other direction. If you like to world-build, and you usually do things the other way around, like making maps first, or starting out with a single character and creating a world around them, you may find that this challenge inspires incredible new ideas.
It's my hope this exercise will help you find new ways to foster your creative ideas. If you reach the end of this and wonder what to do with it now, you can always take it a step further in your own time and write yourself a plot involving the new race of people you've just created. (That's not something you have to do for this challenge, though). It's a good excuse for more writing! ^_^
Step One: Read the article on major biomes linked to above.
Step Two: Choose one of the basic biomes included in the article. This environment you have chosen will form the underlying influence to the next step of this challenge, which is...
Step Three: Using the biome you've chosen, your task now is to create a new people, a new culture, based around this environment. To make things fair, all you'll have to do is fill out the following list, Aspects of Creating Alternate Worlds/Societies, written by Lu Cairncross. This list is only a guideline, so don't feel you have to do a whole lot of research for this unless you really want to. Not all the sub-questions (those in italics) need to be answered; this is just about getting the basics down. You can always elaborate later on, if you want.
Aspects for Creating Alternate Worlds/Societies
By Lucielle Cairncross
Structure – How is the society/community structured? Research examples of past/present societies such as ancient Greek or Egyptian; 20th century democratic & socialist; 10th century English and 19th century pioneer American.)
History –How do the people regard their past, etc?
Laws –Who makes the laws? Who enforces them? What sorts of crimes afflict the society? How are the offenders punished?
Trade – Does the society have one or more trading systems? If there are several, how do they relate to each other? (Research these systems: state-owned, co-operatives, bartering, small businesses, large conglomerates, cottage industries, global mega-corporations. Read: Global Dreams: Imperial Corporations and The New World Order by Richard Barnet & John Cavanagh)
Social Behaviour – What sorts of actions, activities or beliefs are accepted/rejected by the people? What are the reactions to, or consequences of, unacceptable behaviour?
Education – What types of education, work training or professional achievement does the society practise or recognise? Who has access to these systems? Is it free? If not, who pays?
Science & technology – How developed are these areas? Who has access to any developments? Who finances these developments or research? Who benefits? Are there any negative long or short-term effects on the people or their environment?
Social/Work Environment – How do the people dress? How do they produce the materials and construct their garments? What do they eat? How do they produce/prepare their food? Where do they live? How do they produce the building materials and construct their dwellings? List all the different industries that arise from these food, clothing and shelter needs.
Health/Medical – What sorts of diseases, physical and psychological, do the people suffer? How and where are they treated? If there is a health care system, who pays for it? Is there more than one health care option? (e.g. chemical, herbal, massage, clinical hypnosis, acupuncture, shamanism, crystal, magnetic, homeopathy, virtual, nanotechnology etc)
Religion – How many belief systems, if any, are there? Which are generally accepted or rejected? What is the attitude of devotees towards non-believers or people of other religions?
Communication – Is there some common form of communication (e.g. spoken, written/recorded or sign language; communication of other means such as varying shape, scent, colour, temperature or sound patterns, telepathy etc or a combination of a few of the above). Are there any communication differences or problems between the separate groups of people within the society? If so, does this cause friction, misunderstandings or severe conflict between the separate groups? (Research the effects of the different spoken and body languages of our cultures) What languages do people speak? Is there a trade tongue used for business, like English today? Is there an 'educated' or 'noble' language like Latin in the Middle Ages? Are speakers of a certain language looked down upon? If so, why? What happens to the language of a country defeated in war?
Reproduction and reduction – How do they reproduce? Who nurtures the young, and what is the society’s attitude towards them? How does the society regard death? Do they practise any funerary rites or customs?
General Environment – How do the people treat the plants, animals, natural resources etc? Are the seasonal changes mild or severe? If the changes are severe, how does this effect the environment and the people? What aspects of the environment, including the weather, are controlled by the people?
Energy – What types of energy does the society use? How is this energy produced, financed and distributed? Does everyone benefit equally? Does this energy need affect their environment?
Transport – What types of personal and/or commercial transport does the society favour and what sort of industries or special training requirements arise from them?
Leisure/pleasure – What types of leisure or pleasure activities does the society enjoy? Is everyone allowed equal leisure time? If not, how do the different groups regard each other?
Cultural – Does the society have any cultural facets? e.g. music, art, drama, dance, crafts etc). How important are these cultural aspects , and the people who produce them, to the society?
By Lucielle Cairncross
Structure – How is the society/community structured? Research examples of past/present societies such as ancient Greek or Egyptian; 20th century democratic & socialist; 10th century English and 19th century pioneer American.)
History –How do the people regard their past, etc?
Laws –Who makes the laws? Who enforces them? What sorts of crimes afflict the society? How are the offenders punished?
Trade – Does the society have one or more trading systems? If there are several, how do they relate to each other? (Research these systems: state-owned, co-operatives, bartering, small businesses, large conglomerates, cottage industries, global mega-corporations. Read: Global Dreams: Imperial Corporations and The New World Order by Richard Barnet & John Cavanagh)
Social Behaviour – What sorts of actions, activities or beliefs are accepted/rejected by the people? What are the reactions to, or consequences of, unacceptable behaviour?
Education – What types of education, work training or professional achievement does the society practise or recognise? Who has access to these systems? Is it free? If not, who pays?
Science & technology – How developed are these areas? Who has access to any developments? Who finances these developments or research? Who benefits? Are there any negative long or short-term effects on the people or their environment?
Social/Work Environment – How do the people dress? How do they produce the materials and construct their garments? What do they eat? How do they produce/prepare their food? Where do they live? How do they produce the building materials and construct their dwellings? List all the different industries that arise from these food, clothing and shelter needs.
Health/Medical – What sorts of diseases, physical and psychological, do the people suffer? How and where are they treated? If there is a health care system, who pays for it? Is there more than one health care option? (e.g. chemical, herbal, massage, clinical hypnosis, acupuncture, shamanism, crystal, magnetic, homeopathy, virtual, nanotechnology etc)
Religion – How many belief systems, if any, are there? Which are generally accepted or rejected? What is the attitude of devotees towards non-believers or people of other religions?
Communication – Is there some common form of communication (e.g. spoken, written/recorded or sign language; communication of other means such as varying shape, scent, colour, temperature or sound patterns, telepathy etc or a combination of a few of the above). Are there any communication differences or problems between the separate groups of people within the society? If so, does this cause friction, misunderstandings or severe conflict between the separate groups? (Research the effects of the different spoken and body languages of our cultures) What languages do people speak? Is there a trade tongue used for business, like English today? Is there an 'educated' or 'noble' language like Latin in the Middle Ages? Are speakers of a certain language looked down upon? If so, why? What happens to the language of a country defeated in war?
Reproduction and reduction – How do they reproduce? Who nurtures the young, and what is the society’s attitude towards them? How does the society regard death? Do they practise any funerary rites or customs?
General Environment – How do the people treat the plants, animals, natural resources etc? Are the seasonal changes mild or severe? If the changes are severe, how does this effect the environment and the people? What aspects of the environment, including the weather, are controlled by the people?
Energy – What types of energy does the society use? How is this energy produced, financed and distributed? Does everyone benefit equally? Does this energy need affect their environment?
Transport – What types of personal and/or commercial transport does the society favour and what sort of industries or special training requirements arise from them?
Leisure/pleasure – What types of leisure or pleasure activities does the society enjoy? Is everyone allowed equal leisure time? If not, how do the different groups regard each other?
Cultural – Does the society have any cultural facets? e.g. music, art, drama, dance, crafts etc). How important are these cultural aspects , and the people who produce them, to the society?
This is a pretty hefty challenge, but again, you don't have to go into a great detail here. Basic answers to these questions will be enough for you to build on later. These questions are mainly here to help you flesh things out a bit. For this challenge, though, all the major questions in bold should have at least a couple of lines worth of material each. Don't forget to let us know which Biome you've chosen at the beginning of your post.
Reward: Earn a maximum of 10 Honour Points based on your excerpt's word count.
100 words or less = 10 Easy Points
101-300 words = 10 Medium Points
301-500 words = 10 Hard Points
Happy creating!!
