The first 500 people to use my link skl.sh/hannahsmth10241 will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare premium! And thank you all so much for watching, my apologies for the audio quality, though it is kind of in line with the quality of the past, we're working on fixing it for the next one!
Wow you're south African? You have a subtle British accent that pegged you as a British immigrant to somewhere else from me. I guess that's the colonial South African accent - it's interesting.
If I had to guess, Culture emerged with the evolution of self-awareness. Animals like Orcas, Elephants, and Chimps, all have self-awareness, or the ability to recognize themselves. This also means that they can form thoughts, distinctions, and opinions. They have to be able to think they exist, draw distinctions between themselves and others, and opinionate on what makes them different. With these 3 things, these species are able to form cultures. Orcas occasionally wear salmon as hats just to look cool. Chimps have changing social hierarchies. Elephants will travel hundreds of miles to mourn the death of one of their own, or even humans on occasion. These creatures have culture because of what comes with self-awareness. With thoughts, distinctions, and opinions, each unique to the individual, a culture can emerge with each idea bouncing off another.
It could also exist in species that use some form of artistic expression to attract mates. There's a species of bird that keep inventing new songs to woo females. There are arrangements that are more popular than others in certain areas and in different generations. The complexity of their songs used to be the most important thing, but unfortunately with human setllements and roads making a lot of noise, they mainly focus on being loud enough to be heard, which is pretty sad tbh. There is also a species of fish where the males make beautiful mandala-like structures by tracing lines in the sand and decorating it with rocks, shells, or whatever he finds that could look good. This has absolutely no purpose outside of impressing females. I wouldn't be suprised these fish also have certain arrangements that are more popular than others. I bet the less successful males must be checking out what the more attractive ones are doing and taking notes
culture has more to do with the ability to pass knowledge between generations than anything else. Octopuses are extremely intelligent, but they can't form cultures because they die too soon
@@Sleepycollegestudent There is a lot of things we still don't know about ants! They seem to be amongst the smartest insects even on an individual scale tho, along with bees and cockroaches. Some people claim they can't be that smart because they sometimes get in eternal spirals following each other, but it seems to be more about the way their senses work. They don't have good eyesight, so they can't notice they're just threading the same path over and over. It's hard to test how smart an individual ant is tho, as being forcefully removed from their colony stresses them out and you can't learn anything when you're stressed
as a sociology major i gotta say this is spot on of course there were a few things missing butwhen it comes to humanities if you talk about EVERYTHING you end up with a 1000 page book at least so you tend to pick and choose the major stuff you can easily showcase and explain great work
@thomasmcdevitt1600 there's around 9 species in total, so far. None of them are humanoid but still the same size and body as the wild members of their kind. The first are the Sauropods, the largest and eldest of them. They built the great monoliths, and we're integral in the creation and maintaining of entire large ecosystems. Tyrannosaurs as the first warriors and herders, Hadrosaurs as the first stationary farmers and road builders, leptoceratopsian as the first metal workers and creator the wheel, and troodontids/raptors as the first writers and traders. On the coast and rivers are the spinosaurs who invented sailing and are integral in providing food for the Tyrannosaurs in cities. And then there's the Ceratopsians like Triceratops and Styracosaurs who truly pioneered war and serve as guardians and protectors of herbivore communities.
"Animals" do have cultures. We know that, for example, chimpanzees have different cultures. There are probably others, but people just haven't really researched it all that much. It's also not that visible, because only humans wear clothes, make buildings, etc., so it's just very visible.
There are corvids that pass down tool making styles to their offspring, that one group of dolphins that started wearing hats for a bit, one of the big aquatic mammals makes bubble nets (it's a new behavior we've seen emerge) in one region but other regions don't although I forget if it's still spreading. Yep, lots of culture
On a related notes, animals like Cows and Sheep have accents, while maybe not as complex as a culture, it shows some element of local distinction and social upbringing, which are some way to culture.
My favorite thing about cultures is how art reacts to it and vice-versa. There are countless examples of culture and art reacting to each other because they are interlinked so closely, and I think it's awesome.
I'm so happy the algorithm recommended this channel to me and equally ecstatic I took the gamble on a smaller view count, your content deserves orders of magnitude more love Please keep up the awesome work, kind stranger!
Congrats on the epic video and the sponsorship. As a Christian, (don't worry not a young earth fundamentalist evangelical dick) I find your explanations of cultural formation really fascinating. The way my worldview seeks to connect shared human phenomenons to my own religious convictions about right, wrong, and and stuff leads me to lots of neat revelations. I love the way you dissect things without 'talking down' about religions, cultures, and identity the way lots of channels like this do. You're much less mechanistic than they, and I find I agree with many of your arguments!
THIS. As someone who has spent the latter of my adolescent life and the few years of adult life attempting to understand the religion of my youth through history, sociology, etc. this video does a phenomenal job of touching on how and why we may be directed to believe what we believe.
@TheShortNeckWonder 100%. I am of the opinion that humans are all spiritual to some degree and the importance of religions and faiths to culture thru history has been slept on a lot or profoundly misinterpreted by atheist historians. It's more a failure to empathetically put yourself in the position of a person of faith than any maliciousness, but it can still harm perceptions of faith in cultureal understanding discussions like this. I think people either read WAAAY to into thing and call X stone thingie a 'ritualist object' simply because they don't know what the heck it was used for and that looks bad to say in a research paper. The other side of course is claiming that religions in history and culture serve only materialistic ends, and are only ever practiced in bad faith. Both are really silly positions I've had to read in 'serious academic literature.'
@@chrisbolland5634i have not heard nor seen historians or most historians ignore or underestimate the importance of religion to various cultures it's pretty hard to ignore and what profound misinterpretion of religion have atheists historians have exactly
One of the most useful pieces of information I learned in my anthropology studies in college is the fact that culture is *patterned*. You tend to see one thing in one part of the culture in another part of it A simple example is: misogyny in law is often accompanied by misogyny in the workplace and misogyny in the household This goes for *everything* and makes writing cultures so much easier. So by identifying core "notable values" and spreading it into every part of the culture, you very quickly get a much better understanding of it Of course this has to be accompanied with the idea of individualism and the fact that values, ideals, etc of a culture all get opposed within the same culture That's also an easy way to make sub cultures! I know this is grossly oversimplifying it, but gods does it make the bigger picture so much easier to understand and work with Religion should mirror aspects of culture and vice versa Another very important topic is the concept of homeostasis. Every culture has a set of norms/values and taboos, moving away from them (or committing taboos) generally results in the judicial part of the culture (let it be a justice system, a tribe elder, a captain, etc) to bring back the balance whether it's through punishment, ostracism, banishment, deatch, et cetera These 3 concepts mixed together, I find, makes writing a fantasy culture way way easier to approach than the absurd nuance of irl culture (where every single person is arguably a sub culture. Good luck writing that!) I'm worldbuilding an entire dnd adjacent world from scratch and these concepts are helping me a lot with my process
Actually, the "Greeks didn't have a word for blue" thing is somewhat misleading! Consider one such description of the sky, calling it bronze coloured. We think of that as a shiny brown, sorta orangey. However, bronze also means bluish green, because of "rust" (tarnishing, to be more exact). A lot of these descriptions also come from old poems and stories, not designed to be read as factual reports. The Greeks were simply being poetic. To call the sky bronze or the ocean wine coloured is thought provoking.
It's not poetic, in fact ancient Greek didn't have a word for blue, at least not in Homer's time. It's a common thing in many ancient and even modern languages, and it's not just blue. Orange didn't have a name (and wasn't even distinct from red) until it took the name of the Orange family. Usually these uncommon colors are given names only when they are used as dyes, and blue is a rather rare and precious color (lapis lazuli was used, and it's no coincidence that in many languages blue takes its name from these stones).
Fantastic video! As an anthropologist, its really nice to see a deep dive into culture in a way that is accessible and isn't heady. Keep up the great work! There is so many good things to read on the subject that helps dive into the world around us, and the worlds we create.
i dont remember when nor why I subscribed to you but your channel def matches my aesthetic and I'm glad this popped up right as I discover that all my favorite topics can be grouped into the humanities!! 😄
Looking forward to the next video, but do remember to take your time. Your content is always well worth the wait, so we'll be here when you're well and ready ;)
I'm begging my 3rd year of social and cultural anthropology degree, the more i learn about cultures and culture as a whole thing, the less I'm able to define my subject of study, thank you for making me being deeper in this rabbit hole (great video)
As an anthropology grad student, you hit the nail on the head. Also your voice is very soothing, almost fell asleep during the video because it made such good background noise. Keep up the good work!
What an amazing video and introduction to your channel. Looking forward to whatever else you make! Your art is charismatic, your explanations are detailed without being overbearing, your voice is soothing, and you are even a fellow South African! I am here for whatever is next
Culture is so fascinating, amazing video! I’m learning about ontological design at university and you described it so well. I also really appreciate the metaphors, it makes theoretical concepts a lot easier to wrap my head around. I am already planning to steal your newborn river 😈
I think that is a very good video for understanding how cultures are in their current forms, best video I've found on it I'd say, but it does disappoint me that this video just shows cultures as inanimate objects rather than the changing organisms that they are It gives so much help for the comprehension of how cultures affect people, but not how they are formed or changed by the interactions between people, or how people share cultures between eachother Edit: NEVERMIND APPARENT'Y! I do wish this part was addressed from the beginning of the video but oh my goodness sorry for commenting this half way through
Hey, some thoughts on non-monogamy. 1. People in non-monogamous cultures sometimes do live monogamous lives, because either their personal views don't align with the rest of their culture or they simply don't see a reason to expand beyond a single partner. 2. The concept of ownership and inheritance leads to cultures where relationships that are more structured. There are clearer lines of succession, and either a legal system or a system of cultural norms surrounding it. If characters aren't concerned with that (either because their society uses a different system of ownership, or they personally don't care about inheritance) then they might be more likely to have more partners than is normal within their culture, and they might be more fluid than a monogamous culture. There's some chance that partners may come or go without any elaborate proceedings like weddings or divorces, but... that still depends on a lot of very personal factors. 3. This one is based on over a decade of personal experience, but- Purely on a logistical level, its a tiny bit easier to be non-monogamous if you're gay because there can be a shared affection between everyone. But in my personal experience, that only works for groups of 3. Any more than 3, and it starts to resemble more of a web. Sometimes that web is fine- but other times its less stable and the arrangement is more temporary than a 3 person group. And since homosexual people are less likely to have children, sometimes they resemble example 2 to some degree. But this is entirely subjective. Everyone has a different perspective, and their own wisdom.
I am SO excited for this, the last videos were such bangers that I go back to watch again to get into thinking about the world occasionally. 3:34 oh, haha, I could just ask mom, she remembers the communal farms. The Anglosphere is so wide nowadays.
This is the first time I came across your channel, this is a topic I'm not usually drawn to but I clicked on the video anyway and I'm glad I did! Your presentation, flow of ideas, writing, and drawing are all so well put together! What a great video best of luck to you & your channel!!
Always look forward to a vid from this channel. Culture is a difficult topic nowadays but I think you handled it very well. Looking forward to the next episode!
The fact all that happened before makes it so much worse ironically, because it means we never learned anything and likely won't, as ways for us to be exploited evolve quicker than our monke brains can keep up with.
I'm an anthropology student and I must say the next time I feel the need to explain to someone how culture determines their perspective over things I'm gonna send them this video.
Ah yes, culture. The hardest thing to define in my career and the thing that also makes it very fascinating. Very good video, good examples throughout. Didn't know you were dual citizen. 😮
Fun fact(You may cover this later in the video, I haven’t gotten all the way through), the crescent moon is not actually an Islamic symbol. Or at least it didn’t originate as one. Muslims are a little particular about symbols and icons, which is why you don’t see artistic depictions of God and his prophets; They see it as idolatry. The star and crescent as a modern symbol of the Islamic world is more cultural and historical than religious, originating with military flags in the Middle Ages and later adopted by the Ottomans. The closest thing you’ll find to a symbol is the Shahada, the Muslim creed: “There is no God but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God”. You’ll often find that written in Mosques all over the world and it’s often been used in flags and such.
it's a funny thought, and it's litterally became a meme that any artefact with unknown uses is assumed to be religious But also drawing epic showdowns of giant snails vs hares riding humans and stuff like that were super popular to draw in the margins of books, and we already know they were just goofing off by drawing these
For an interesting cultural reference, the people of Turtle Island most often described Western culture as overly selfish, and cultures around the Great Lakes have a sacred spirit known as the Wendigo who represents unsatiable greed and today understand Wendigo as representation of colonization. Though even I do not fully understand the symbolism or meaning of the Wendigo as I'm from a national on the other side of Turtle Island, and thus we have different stories.
From my understanding the Wendigo spirit also varies greatly between cultures. Some might see it as an abstract, others as a very real threat. Wendigo don’t just possess people, it drives them to cannibalism. Famously there is the case of Jack Fiddler, a native shaman who was arrested for killing a woman he believed was possessed by a Wendigo spirit in 1907.
@@drewgon13 It does greatly very, but what is represents doesn't. Though colonization is a modern interpretation of the Wendigo, and thus you actually have to ask people about it.
@@slowjamsliver7006 Yeah, exactly, it is just like Christian demons. What used to be something very real to the people of the time slowly became more or less literal as time went on. The cultural consensus of an idea varies between peoples and times. Some people today do very much believe in demonic possession and exorcism, and it is kind of uniting that this belief is shared across cultural lines. If we can share witch hunts to banish evil spirits, maybe we aren’t all so different after all.
O my god your voice is so beautiful, talking about culture and you speak about it with so much nuance and your African ( south African) I am subscribing IMMEDIATELY. Am Nigerian by the way
Fun fact: Apparently, "Journey to the West" is, in fact, an adaption of a series of interrelated folk tales based on exggerated accounts of the travels of a historical Tang Dynasty monk.
I really love your videos, they are very useful and interesting, i am a dungeon master basically making the whole world for fun and also studying sound engineering so i tend to pay close attention to the sound, i don't know if is intentional but there is a lot of Audio sibilance or too much of S sound, one cheap solution could be trying to put the mic at an angle in a way that is not directly in front of the mouth. That said i really enjoy your videos and i think this channel deserves more attention 💚.
It’s really interesting you say this. My family immigrated to the US in the 20s and weirdly enough my family retained a bunch of random shit from Belarusian culture. Like we kept some words for foods like Bliny and Kolbasy. Another thing we kept was the way we interact with people we don’t know, we seem cold and closed off until the other person interacts first, then we’re pretty friendly n stuff. There’s more stuff but I really ain’t tryna sit here and list em all lmfao. But it’s interesting the things we retain and combine with new influences of culture.
Yes, that's what I personally strive for. Like sure, I make fun of the French and Germans, but I respect both and am mainly focused on ridiculous politics (like why does the Saarland make or used to make saltwater fish, it's not even close to the ocean).
You upload the one day I don't check this channel for more content, how?! Also, haven't seen the video yet, but I bet it's gonna be awesome. Edit: I was right. Video was awesome.
im watching this sitting om top of 43 half built worlds that i will never complete, knowing that after this video there will be a 44th half built world
8:42 To be honest, freedom and liberty can only thrive when there’s a group willing to uphold and defend these values. It makes sense that people who support freedom wouldn’t rely on total freedom as a tactic. If they did, how would they effectively uphold and defend it without a unifying purpose? I don’t think it’s accurate to call it ironic when people organize into like-minded groups to support civic ideals. In fact, it’s necessary-how else could they preserve these values?
I truly believe any and every major issue can be boiled down to a single word; Definition. Everyone wants to save the world. We just can’t agree on how. Everyone wants to do the right thing for the world… we just don’t agree what is “right” and “wrong”. I’ve recently been focusing on why people feel the way they do politically. It’s lead me to some awkward questions, but I want to know why someone thinks what they think. What is going on when we have the same data, but we find different results. It almost always boils down to how we define our data. As an example, I leaned far to one side of a political spectrum for my entire life, but I wanted to know why the other side thought they were right, so I befriended multiple people who I disagreed with. Now I have a completely different perspective of things. I feel completely different about the topic(s). I know it’s hard, but listen to the “them” before you decided which “us” you become. Both sides have valid points, so you need to know what those points are before you condemn one or the other,
I'm pretty sure even most Muslims don't even know the context for the crescent moon, I mean it basically just exists as a symbol to distinguish it from other religions and comes from the Ottoman empire, but it doesn't have significance the way the cross does in Christianity, personally I think the Rub el Hizb is a better symbol for Islam cause it actually has religious significance
Did you forget about languages that don't use sound. Written, signed, touched. The deaf and mute communities don't communicate with sound. Also leads to them being a subset culture if their own within their local cultures. 18:10
"People think Culture defines goop how think look and cat the same" I can't speak for anyone ales but I've never thought of culture as strongly related to your looks (aside form one's fashion sense) yes people of the same culture tend to be form the same ethnicity but more so a consequence of geography, one culture can easy contain a diverse goop of people especially new in the internet age
I think its fascinating how many of your cultural assumptions show up, haha, but you were mostly fair, so i approve. Good work. For me, culture is like a fluid, and we all have multiple cultures in us. Nations are a form of macro culture, but there are various group and community cultures.
Ok jokes aside, we do actually live in a society. When I’m alone or with my family I do a bunch of weird stuff, but when I go out in public I’m practically a different person.
some animals DO have culture! Like orcas for example, and there's also a species of bird that constantly update the songs they sing, with certain arrangements being more popular in certain regions and generations!
29:25 It would be a crime against humanity rather than a war crime. A war crime defines an act that is forbidden by the "law of war" (I don't know what it's called). Many despicable things can be done to a people, but still be classified as "fair in war".
So my degree is in anthropology and the fun thing here is your nationality can be very divorced from your culture! This isn't new. For example, for a long time, the modern-day Czech Republic was a territory in the Austro-Hungarian empire. They were subjects of the empire but didn't speak German or Hungarian, the two official languages had different traditions, and at times had different religious practices as well. Granted the Austro-Hungarian Empire was never the best unified state on a cultural level but that led to the Czechs considering themselves a distinct and separate people instead of just imperial subjects and wanting their own state that would look out for their collective interests.
Ooooh human culture not bacterial culture got it Thanks for the detailed vid, feel like this is something teachers should be showing in Highschool classrooms!
Crazy part is culture is not unique to humans, some primates and birds have it and orcas have such complex cultures that it defines their lifestyles. The Orcas in some places wont eat seals for reasons we dont understand whereas others regularly hunt them even when other more easily obtainable food sources are available, some stay in one region with small and very tight knit families while others are nomadic where multiple pods will mingle together at certain points in the year. Overall there is nothing about humans that is totally unique and its all a difference in degree not of kind, we are the best at language and have the most complex cultures but we arent that far ahead of some of the smartest non human animals. 7 million years ago we were just another ape and hadn't diverged from chimps yet, we didnt magically become how we are overnight but instead it was gradual and we became the most culturally and linguistically complex animals known to have every existed. I think its important to remember that in the end we are still animals and more then that we are animals that evolved to live in a certain context, a context that we no longer live in. You can take the person out of the stone age but you cant take the stone age out of the person. Anxiety, tribalism, bullying, stubbornness, and almost all of our bad qualities exist because when we were still just living out in the woods fighting tigers with pointy sticks they are beneficial to the existence of the species, these traits are outdated but we havent lost them since our advancement simply outpaces our evolution. We are still just some weird ape that somehow is 35% of all mammal biomass now, I mean seriously there are several thousand people for every bear on the planet which is unrelated but still.
The first 500 people to use my link skl.sh/hannahsmth10241 will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare premium!
And thank you all so much for watching, my apologies for the audio quality, though it is kind of in line with the quality of the past, we're working on fixing it for the next one!
A sponsor? Get that bag!!
Wow you're south African? You have a subtle British accent that pegged you as a British immigrant to somewhere else from me. I guess that's the colonial South African accent - it's interesting.
*insert society meme here*
This is a very cultured video
Very based indeed
If I had to guess, Culture emerged with the evolution of self-awareness. Animals like Orcas, Elephants, and Chimps, all have self-awareness, or the ability to recognize themselves. This also means that they can form thoughts, distinctions, and opinions. They have to be able to think they exist, draw distinctions between themselves and others, and opinionate on what makes them different. With these 3 things, these species are able to form cultures. Orcas occasionally wear salmon as hats just to look cool. Chimps have changing social hierarchies. Elephants will travel hundreds of miles to mourn the death of one of their own, or even humans on occasion. These creatures have culture because of what comes with self-awareness. With thoughts, distinctions, and opinions, each unique to the individual, a culture can emerge with each idea bouncing off another.
It could also exist in species that use some form of artistic expression to attract mates.
There's a species of bird that keep inventing new songs to woo females. There are arrangements that are more popular than others in certain areas and in different generations.
The complexity of their songs used to be the most important thing, but unfortunately with human setllements and roads making a lot of noise, they mainly focus on being loud enough to be heard, which is pretty sad tbh.
There is also a species of fish where the males make beautiful mandala-like structures by tracing lines in the sand and decorating it with rocks, shells, or whatever he finds that could look good. This has absolutely no purpose outside of impressing females. I wouldn't be suprised these fish also have certain arrangements that are more popular than others. I bet the less successful males must be checking out what the more attractive ones are doing and taking notes
culture has more to do with the ability to pass knowledge between generations than anything else. Octopuses are extremely intelligent, but they can't form cultures because they die too soon
These are great comments! I look forward to further additions to this thread.
Ants probably lack self awareness and they form complex societies.
@@Sleepycollegestudent There is a lot of things we still don't know about ants! They seem to be amongst the smartest insects even on an individual scale tho, along with bees and cockroaches. Some people claim they can't be that smart because they sometimes get in eternal spirals following each other, but it seems to be more about the way their senses work. They don't have good eyesight, so they can't notice they're just threading the same path over and over.
It's hard to test how smart an individual ant is tho, as being forcefully removed from their colony stresses them out and you can't learn anything when you're stressed
as a sociology major i gotta say this is spot on
of course there were a few things missing butwhen it comes to humanities if you talk about EVERYTHING you end up with a 1000 page book at least so you tend to pick and choose the major stuff you can easily showcase and explain
great work
YEAH
Can't you just say culture is everything that humans do?
@@seekyunbounded9273not necessarily as some things are done w/o awareness or control.
@@seekyunbounded9273 not useful information. Information doesn't have to be just correct, it needs to be useful
Glad to see a new video! I'm actually writing the cultures of sophont/Sapient dinosaurs in a bronze age world for a worldbuilding project
That’s so cool! Just don’t make them humanoid lol
@thomasmcdevitt1600 there's around 9 species in total, so far. None of them are humanoid but still the same size and body as the wild members of their kind.
The first are the Sauropods, the largest and eldest of them. They built the great monoliths, and we're integral in the creation and maintaining of entire large ecosystems.
Tyrannosaurs as the first warriors and herders, Hadrosaurs as the first stationary farmers and road builders, leptoceratopsian as the first metal workers and creator the wheel, and troodontids/raptors as the first writers and traders.
On the coast and rivers are the spinosaurs who invented sailing and are integral in providing food for the Tyrannosaurs in cities.
And then there's the Ceratopsians like Triceratops and Styracosaurs who truly pioneered war and serve as guardians and protectors of herbivore communities.
"Animals" do have cultures. We know that, for example, chimpanzees have different cultures. There are probably others, but people just haven't really researched it all that much. It's also not that visible, because only humans wear clothes, make buildings, etc., so it's just very visible.
orcas have a weirdly specific group that hunts sharks for their livers while others don't
I only remembered now, some of the asian elephants bury their dead (yes, it's true), but not all of them.
There are corvids that pass down tool making styles to their offspring, that one group of dolphins that started wearing hats for a bit, one of the big aquatic mammals makes bubble nets (it's a new behavior we've seen emerge) in one region but other regions don't although I forget if it's still spreading.
Yep, lots of culture
On a related notes, animals like Cows and Sheep have accents, while maybe not as complex as a culture, it shows some element of local distinction and social upbringing, which are some way to culture.
My favorite thing about cultures is how art reacts to it and vice-versa.
There are countless examples of culture and art reacting to each other because they are interlinked so closely, and I think it's awesome.
It's not a real hannahsmth video if you aren't trapped in an alleyway somewhere while she explains worldbuilding to you
I'm so happy the algorithm recommended this channel to me and equally ecstatic I took the gamble on a smaller view count, your content deserves orders of magnitude more love
Please keep up the awesome work, kind stranger!
Oh yeah another banger
Absolute bangeroonie
Noice! I love getting my new world building tips from the Alleyway. :D
Congrats on the epic video and the sponsorship. As a Christian, (don't worry not a young earth fundamentalist evangelical dick) I find your explanations of cultural formation really fascinating. The way my worldview seeks to connect shared human phenomenons to my own religious convictions about right, wrong, and and stuff leads me to lots of neat revelations.
I love the way you dissect things without 'talking down' about religions, cultures, and identity the way lots of channels like this do. You're much less mechanistic than they, and I find I agree with many of your arguments!
THIS. As someone who has spent the latter of my adolescent life and the few years of adult life attempting to understand the religion of my youth through history, sociology, etc. this video does a phenomenal job of touching on how and why we may be directed to believe what we believe.
@TheShortNeckWonder 100%.
I am of the opinion that humans are all spiritual to some degree and the importance of religions and faiths to culture thru history has been slept on a lot or profoundly misinterpreted by atheist historians. It's more a failure to empathetically put yourself in the position of a person of faith than any maliciousness, but it can still harm perceptions of faith in cultureal understanding discussions like this.
I think people either read WAAAY to into thing and call X stone thingie a 'ritualist object' simply because they don't know what the heck it was used for and that looks bad to say in a research paper. The other side of course is claiming that religions in history and culture serve only materialistic ends, and are only ever practiced in bad faith.
Both are really silly positions I've had to read in 'serious academic literature.'
@@chrisbolland5634Who are "they" that look down on Religion,culture and identity exactly specifically and how is she less mechanistic exactly
@@chrisbolland5634i have not heard nor seen historians or most historians ignore or underestimate the importance of religion to various cultures it's pretty hard to ignore and what profound misinterpretion of religion have atheists historians have exactly
Just stumbled across your channel, and as a huge fan of humans and the way they work, along with worldbuilding, it has turned up as an absolute gem
One of the most useful pieces of information I learned in my anthropology studies in college is the fact that culture is *patterned*. You tend to see one thing in one part of the culture in another part of it
A simple example is: misogyny in law is often accompanied by misogyny in the workplace and misogyny in the household
This goes for *everything* and makes writing cultures so much easier. So by identifying core "notable values" and spreading it into every part of the culture, you very quickly get a much better understanding of it
Of course this has to be accompanied with the idea of individualism and the fact that values, ideals, etc of a culture all get opposed within the same culture
That's also an easy way to make sub cultures!
I know this is grossly oversimplifying it, but gods does it make the bigger picture so much easier to understand and work with
Religion should mirror aspects of culture and vice versa
Another very important topic is the concept of homeostasis. Every culture has a set of norms/values and taboos, moving away from them (or committing taboos) generally results in the judicial part of the culture (let it be a justice system, a tribe elder, a captain, etc) to bring back the balance whether it's through punishment, ostracism, banishment, deatch, et cetera
These 3 concepts mixed together, I find, makes writing a fantasy culture way way easier to approach than the absurd nuance of irl culture (where every single person is arguably a sub culture. Good luck writing that!)
I'm worldbuilding an entire dnd adjacent world from scratch and these concepts are helping me a lot with my process
hi sorry im mesmerized by the bog woman you drew at around 5 minutes. i would let her take me to the bog.
Weirdo (same)
Long and short of it: the habit and character of a group is the culture.
Actually, the "Greeks didn't have a word for blue" thing is somewhat misleading!
Consider one such description of the sky, calling it bronze coloured.
We think of that as a shiny brown, sorta orangey.
However, bronze also means bluish green, because of "rust" (tarnishing, to be more exact). A lot of these descriptions also come from old poems and stories, not designed to be read as factual reports. The Greeks were simply being poetic. To call the sky bronze or the ocean wine coloured is thought provoking.
It's not poetic, in fact ancient Greek didn't have a word for blue, at least not in Homer's time. It's a common thing in many ancient and even modern languages, and it's not just blue. Orange didn't have a name (and wasn't even distinct from red) until it took the name of the Orange family. Usually these uncommon colors are given names only when they are used as dyes, and blue is a rather rare and precious color (lapis lazuli was used, and it's no coincidence that in many languages blue takes its name from these stones).
I heard the concept culture defined as stages of an "intellectual contagion" and i can't unhear it
Fascinating! Taking notes for later addendums to my worldbuilding :D
Fantastic video! As an anthropologist, its really nice to see a deep dive into culture in a way that is accessible and isn't heady. Keep up the great work! There is so many good things to read on the subject that helps dive into the world around us, and the worlds we create.
i dont remember when nor why I subscribed to you but your channel def matches my aesthetic and I'm glad this popped up right as I discover that all my favorite topics can be grouped into the humanities!! 😄
oh you're the paleolithic person!!
Oh wow, I was just thinking, "Dang, I need to rewatch those videos about early hominids," and then _this video showed up._ What impeccable timing XD
Looking forward to the next video, but do remember to take your time. Your content is always well worth the wait, so we'll be here when you're well and ready ;)
This is so unbelievably informative and interesting. This needs to be one of those videos that blows up and have 2 or 3 million views.
14:40 LETS GOOO
Happy to see you doing well!
I'm begging my 3rd year of social and cultural anthropology degree, the more i learn about cultures and culture as a whole thing, the less I'm able to define my subject of study, thank you for making me being deeper in this rabbit hole (great video)
As an anthropology grad student, you hit the nail on the head. Also your voice is very soothing, almost fell asleep during the video because it made such good background noise. Keep up the good work!
What an amazing video and introduction to your channel. Looking forward to whatever else you make! Your art is charismatic, your explanations are detailed without being overbearing, your voice is soothing, and you are even a fellow South African! I am here for whatever is next
3:51 my image was neutral. it was just of Russia and not people or leaders just the geographical map of Russia
Same but North Korea instead 😭
Mine was an image of the kremlin with the Soviet flag flying on it
This video felt like it flew by. Thank you for this.
Culture is so fascinating, amazing video! I’m learning about ontological design at university and you described it so well. I also really appreciate the metaphors, it makes theoretical concepts a lot easier to wrap my head around. I am already planning to steal your newborn river 😈
can't wait to see this channel surpass 1 bajillion subscribers- crazy potential
I think that is a very good video for understanding how cultures are in their current forms, best video I've found on it I'd say, but it does disappoint me that this video just shows cultures as inanimate objects rather than the changing organisms that they are
It gives so much help for the comprehension of how cultures affect people, but not how they are formed or changed by the interactions between people, or how people share cultures between eachother
Edit: NEVERMIND APPARENT'Y! I do wish this part was addressed from the beginning of the video but oh my goodness sorry for commenting this half way through
In my opinion it is better to start from the definition before explaining the changes, then the substance does not change much.
Hey, some thoughts on non-monogamy.
1. People in non-monogamous cultures sometimes do live monogamous lives, because either their personal views don't align with the rest of their culture or they simply don't see a reason to expand beyond a single partner.
2. The concept of ownership and inheritance leads to cultures where relationships that are more structured. There are clearer lines of succession, and either a legal system or a system of cultural norms surrounding it. If characters aren't concerned with that (either because their society uses a different system of ownership, or they personally don't care about inheritance) then they might be more likely to have more partners than is normal within their culture, and they might be more fluid than a monogamous culture. There's some chance that partners may come or go without any elaborate proceedings like weddings or divorces, but... that still depends on a lot of very personal factors.
3. This one is based on over a decade of personal experience, but- Purely on a logistical level, its a tiny bit easier to be non-monogamous if you're gay because there can be a shared affection between everyone. But in my personal experience, that only works for groups of 3. Any more than 3, and it starts to resemble more of a web. Sometimes that web is fine- but other times its less stable and the arrangement is more temporary than a 3 person group. And since homosexual people are less likely to have children, sometimes they resemble example 2 to some degree.
But this is entirely subjective. Everyone has a different perspective, and their own wisdom.
I am SO excited for this, the last videos were such bangers that I go back to watch again to get into thinking about the world occasionally.
3:34 oh, haha, I could just ask mom, she remembers the communal farms. The Anglosphere is so wide nowadays.
I was wondering where you went heck yeah new baller video
This is the first time I came across your channel, this is a topic I'm not usually drawn to but I clicked on the video anyway and I'm glad I did! Your presentation, flow of ideas, writing, and drawing are all so well put together! What a great video best of luck to you & your channel!!
Always look forward to a vid from this channel. Culture is a difficult topic nowadays but I think you handled it very well. Looking forward to the next episode!
Culture. What you cultivate.
Or be cultivated
Another HSmth Video! This one looks really interesting looking forward to watching !
I love this channel so much, congrats on your first sponsor!
The fact all that happened before makes it so much worse ironically, because it means we never learned anything and likely won't, as ways for us to be exploited evolve quicker than our monke brains can keep up with.
I'm an anthropology student and I must say the next time I feel the need to explain to someone how culture determines their perspective over things I'm gonna send them this video.
I can see the OSP influences from a mile away, and honestly. I am all for it. This is great! Hope to see more hannah videos now.
Ah yes, culture. The hardest thing to define in my career and the thing that also makes it very fascinating. Very good video, good examples throughout. Didn't know you were dual citizen. 😮
Fun fact(You may cover this later in the video, I haven’t gotten all the way through), the crescent moon is not actually an Islamic symbol. Or at least it didn’t originate as one. Muslims are a little particular about symbols and icons, which is why you don’t see artistic depictions of God and his prophets; They see it as idolatry. The star and crescent as a modern symbol of the Islamic world is more cultural and historical than religious, originating with military flags in the Middle Ages and later adopted by the Ottomans.
The closest thing you’ll find to a symbol is the Shahada, the Muslim creed: “There is no God but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God”. You’ll often find that written in Mosques all over the world and it’s often been used in flags and such.
39:14 why do i feel like future historians are going to beleive we used to worship elmo as an eldritch god of destruction
because we do, what kind of question is that?
Are you saying you don’t? Down with the heretic!
the elmo crusade knows your location 🗡 heretic
it's a funny thought, and it's litterally became a meme that any artefact with unknown uses is assumed to be religious
But also drawing epic showdowns of giant snails vs hares riding humans and stuff like that were super popular to draw in the margins of books, and we already know they were just goofing off by drawing these
wake up babe new peak dropped
This is the first time I have seen this channel, and I'm already in love.
For an interesting cultural reference, the people of Turtle Island most often described Western culture as overly selfish, and cultures around the Great Lakes have a sacred spirit known as the Wendigo who represents unsatiable greed and today understand Wendigo as representation of colonization. Though even I do not fully understand the symbolism or meaning of the Wendigo as I'm from a national on the other side of Turtle Island, and thus we have different stories.
From my understanding the Wendigo spirit also varies greatly between cultures. Some might see it as an abstract, others as a very real threat. Wendigo don’t just possess people, it drives them to cannibalism. Famously there is the case of Jack Fiddler, a native shaman who was arrested for killing a woman he believed was possessed by a Wendigo spirit in 1907.
@@drewgon13 It does greatly very, but what is represents doesn't. Though colonization is a modern interpretation of the Wendigo, and thus you actually have to ask people about it.
@@slowjamsliver7006 Yeah, exactly, it is just like Christian demons. What used to be something very real to the people of the time slowly became more or less literal as time went on. The cultural consensus of an idea varies between peoples and times. Some people today do very much believe in demonic possession and exorcism, and it is kind of uniting that this belief is shared across cultural lines. If we can share witch hunts to banish evil spirits, maybe we aren’t all so different after all.
hefty topic to be sure, but incredibly enjoyable - thanks so much!
O my god your voice is so beautiful, talking about culture and you speak about it with so much nuance and your African ( south African) I am subscribing IMMEDIATELY.
Am Nigerian by the way
YEAH
Fun fact: Apparently, "Journey to the West" is, in fact, an adaption of a series of interrelated folk tales based on exggerated accounts of the travels of a historical Tang Dynasty monk.
I really love your videos, they are very useful and interesting, i am a dungeon master basically making the whole world for fun and also studying sound engineering so i tend to pay close attention to the sound, i don't know if is intentional but there is a lot of Audio sibilance or too much of S sound, one cheap solution could be trying to put the mic at an angle in a way that is not directly in front of the mouth. That said i really enjoy your videos and i think this channel deserves more attention 💚.
Culture, nothing less defined, nor debatably the most important thing.
Loved the video, exited for whatever comes next
It’s really interesting you say this. My family immigrated to the US in the 20s and weirdly enough my family retained a bunch of random shit from Belarusian culture. Like we kept some words for foods like Bliny and Kolbasy. Another thing we kept was the way we interact with people we don’t know, we seem cold and closed off until the other person interacts first, then we’re pretty friendly n stuff. There’s more stuff but I really ain’t tryna sit here and list em all lmfao. But it’s interesting the things we retain and combine with new influences of culture.
Interesting work I will discuss this with my battle brothers
The Emperor protects
I love these videos, absolutely beautiful
My queen has posted peak yet again
Hate is easy. Loving is hard. And people tend to do what's easiest. But, we should all strive to do what's hard and right even if it hurts.
Yes, that's what I personally strive for. Like sure, I make fun of the French and Germans, but I respect both and am mainly focused on ridiculous politics (like why does the Saarland make or used to make saltwater fish, it's not even close to the ocean).
3:51 I thought of a very beautiful concept, that constantly gets ruined by human flaws and contradictions
You upload the one day I don't check this channel for more content, how?! Also, haven't seen the video yet, but I bet it's gonna be awesome.
Edit: I was right. Video was awesome.
im watching this sitting om top of 43 half built worlds that i will never complete, knowing that after this video there will be a 44th half built world
this my fav utube channel
Holy shit I can tell that you put a lot of efforts into this vid
13:19 you didn’t mention the issue that arise from having several heirs from different wifes, game of thrones style 😂
Yep so many kingdoms throughout history collapsed into civil war because the heirs were fighting over who will be King.
finally I can watch this I have had so much homework I had no time to watch it but now I do
Tradition and Habits form when we can't do anything better.
8:42 To be honest, freedom and liberty can only thrive when there’s a group willing to uphold and defend these values. It makes sense that people who support freedom wouldn’t rely on total freedom as a tactic. If they did, how would they effectively uphold and defend it without a unifying purpose? I don’t think it’s accurate to call it ironic when people organize into like-minded groups to support civic ideals. In fact, it’s necessary-how else could they preserve these values?
What a great breakdown of a topic that takes years to deliver into 😁
The video is amazing!
oh heck yeah new video
Holy shit no way lets go space needle!!!!! (Also amazing work thanks😁)
I truly believe any and every major issue can be boiled down to a single word; Definition.
Everyone wants to save the world. We just can’t agree on how. Everyone wants to do the right thing for the world… we just don’t agree what is “right” and “wrong”.
I’ve recently been focusing on why people feel the way they do politically. It’s lead me to some awkward questions, but I want to know why someone thinks what they think. What is going on when we have the same data, but we find different results. It almost always boils down to how we define our data.
As an example, I leaned far to one side of a political spectrum for my entire life, but I wanted to know why the other side thought they were right, so I befriended multiple people who I disagreed with. Now I have a completely different perspective of things. I feel completely different about the topic(s). I know it’s hard, but listen to the “them” before you decided which “us” you become. Both sides have valid points, so you need to know what those points are before you condemn one or the other,
Awesome video, I'm just hype Finland was mentioned haha
I'm pretty sure even most Muslims don't even know the context for the crescent moon, I mean it basically just exists as a symbol to distinguish it from other religions and comes from the Ottoman empire, but it doesn't have significance the way the cross does in Christianity, personally I think the Rub el Hizb is a better symbol for Islam cause it actually has religious significance
A video! I know what I’m doing after work!
Very well done!
Also, another great video. I loved the jokes and I love to see another Comrade.
"My culture is based on freedom and aelf determination!" Jean Luc Picard Stardate 44002.3
Did you forget about languages that don't use sound. Written, signed, touched. The deaf and mute communities don't communicate with sound. Also leads to them being a subset culture if their own within their local cultures. 18:10
my parents gave me an ipad when i was a toddler and i now i have to relearn my entire culture :/
"People think Culture defines goop how think look and cat the same" I can't speak for anyone ales but I've never thought of culture as strongly related to your looks (aside form one's fashion sense)
yes people of the same culture tend to be form the same ethnicity but more so a consequence of geography, one culture can easy contain a diverse goop of people especially new in the internet age
As an Anthropology student, this question fills the first week of every semester 😂
Oh my goodness. It's Bestie, it's Her. She's here
Thought at first this was an Adam Lanza reupload
I think its fascinating how many of your cultural assumptions show up, haha, but you were mostly fair, so i approve. Good work. For me, culture is like a fluid, and we all have multiple cultures in us. Nations are a form of macro culture, but there are various group and community cultures.
Another great vid
Ok jokes aside, we do actually live in a society. When I’m alone or with my family I do a bunch of weird stuff, but when I go out in public I’m practically a different person.
49:43 THE ELMO PHASE MADE ME LOSE MY SHIT OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS HILARIOUS.
Based assessment.
some animals DO have culture! Like orcas for example, and there's also a species of bird that constantly update the songs they sing, with certain arrangements being more popular in certain regions and generations!
It was in the original script, but the video was too long to add this too.
I knew subscribing to this channel was a great idea!
29:25
It would be a crime against humanity rather than a war crime. A war crime defines an act that is forbidden by the "law of war" (I don't know what it's called). Many despicable things can be done to a people, but still be classified as "fair in war".
Very good and interesting video
Lesgoooo! let get culture!!
So my degree is in anthropology and the fun thing here is your nationality can be very divorced from your culture! This isn't new. For example, for a long time, the modern-day Czech Republic was a territory in the Austro-Hungarian empire. They were subjects of the empire but didn't speak German or Hungarian, the two official languages had different traditions, and at times had different religious practices as well. Granted the Austro-Hungarian Empire was never the best unified state on a cultural level but that led to the Czechs considering themselves a distinct and separate people instead of just imperial subjects and wanting their own state that would look out for their collective interests.
Ooooh human culture not bacterial culture got it
Thanks for the detailed vid, feel like this is something teachers should be showing in Highschool classrooms!
Crazy part is culture is not unique to humans, some primates and birds have it and orcas have such complex cultures that it defines their lifestyles. The Orcas in some places wont eat seals for reasons we dont understand whereas others regularly hunt them even when other more easily obtainable food sources are available, some stay in one region with small and very tight knit families while others are nomadic where multiple pods will mingle together at certain points in the year. Overall there is nothing about humans that is totally unique and its all a difference in degree not of kind, we are the best at language and have the most complex cultures but we arent that far ahead of some of the smartest non human animals. 7 million years ago we were just another ape and hadn't diverged from chimps yet, we didnt magically become how we are overnight but instead it was gradual and we became the most culturally and linguistically complex animals known to have every existed.
I think its important to remember that in the end we are still animals and more then that we are animals that evolved to live in a certain context, a context that we no longer live in. You can take the person out of the stone age but you cant take the stone age out of the person. Anxiety, tribalism, bullying, stubbornness, and almost all of our bad qualities exist because when we were still just living out in the woods fighting tigers with pointy sticks they are beneficial to the existence of the species, these traits are outdated but we havent lost them since our advancement simply outpaces our evolution. We are still just some weird ape that somehow is 35% of all mammal biomass now, I mean seriously there are several thousand people for every bear on the planet which is unrelated but still.