The model I discuss here is available in my ko-fi shop for "pay what you want", so you can download it free of charge. ko-fi.com/s/dfc7f60d79 It includes the model itself and some notes on how to use it.
This is an awesome amalgamation of different authors' works and incredibly handy with the pdf. Very comprehensive. Feels academic. And you link to different videos for those wanting a deep-dive. Amazing! As I'm watching, I keep shouting, "This is so cool," at my screen. Showing how to work through the model with an IRL culture really drives it home. I can't wait to start using this. The Cultural Norms circle contains so many opportunities for storytelling. I love the taboo example you gave of someone commanding on someone else's ship. That could be the basis of an entire plot arc.
>.> I've been showing most of my cultural worldbuilding by having major characters from four different backgrounds---pseudo-Scandinavian nobility, pseudo-Celtic working class, pseudo-Romance lower class, and... best I can call it is hybrid-Atlantean-Anglo-Saxon middle-class. It makes a nice contrast, showing how they react to certain situations differently. Plus, I can weave fun debates over the preference for saunas vs Roman-style baths into my character banter. XD
I use a similar model to establish my cultural structure, however, my model differs a bit from yours in the following ways. Rather than “material conditions,” I have “subsistence life-support,” where subsistence includes everything including spirituality, sex, etc. that a character, family, community, clan, band, tribe, species requires. I retain your cross-cutting identity lines. My subsistence functions always have counterparts in identities. Thus, while sex is a subsistence function, gender is an identity. My concentric circles differ from yours too. My inner circle is the mind (which includes the thoughts, ethics, mental models, philosophy, core values). This is important as it is here that the individual struggles internally with themselves. Ultimately, the mind must change for any other change to willingly take place. My second circle is the individual-individual and the social/cultural norms/laws/symbols/expressions/etc. that affect that relationship, next is individual-family, and family-family, ditto. Next, individual-community, family-community, community-community, ditto, etc., etc. Since the interaction between your circles is also captured in my model, I have conceptualized my model as a matrix rather than as concentric spheres. I have this matrix in the form of a spreadsheet. I refer to this matrix when considering the cultural implications of a scene and its effects on actions and dialogue. The cross-cutting identities are the headings in the horizontal rows, the cross-cutting subsistence life-support functions are the headings in the vertical columns and the X-X, X-Y etc. relationships are the cells of the 2-D matrix. I trickle rather than dump the culture and its lore into the scene as appropriate by incorporating descriptive details related to the thoughts, decisions and actions of the interacting characters when this is useful to advance the plot. I have one such matrix for each faction as the hierarchical societal structure might vary between factions - my example was for a clan. When two factions with different hierarchical societal structures meet, the encounter will affect each society differently. I hope this makes sense and that it is potentially useful to you and your audience. 😊
Lol the bundle of sticks was called the fasces, it's where the term fascism/fascist comes from (and is pronounced the same) 'cause Mussolini used the fasces as a symbol of italian heritage in his ideology
You could build a culture that starts as a thieves guild or a pirate haven and then expand? There would probably need to be some kind of safety somewhere, probably related to protection money?
@@JustInTimeWorlds I do have it planned where they have a treaty with a neighboring kingdom where they don't steal from them in exchange for their protection from other powers
I'm not so sure I like the usage of the effected and not effected by culture lines I belive perhaps a better usage of those lines would be locality as in does this cultural influence come from internal or external factors
I'm not following? Everything affects the culture. The lines that run through the cultural circles affect every circle of the culture, that's why they bisect them all?
you mention but don't describe the difference between a tribal group and a clan group. But everyone on UA-cam describes a tribe as a group of clans. So I don't understand what distinction you are making between these two ideas. The way I understand it, a clan is how a culture organizes the family unit and a tribe is how the clans are governed. Please explain if you understand these terms differently. thanks.
So, tribes can be multiple clans or how clans are governed, but it doesn't have to be. The definition I work with: Clans are typically smaller groups united by actual or perceived kinship and descent, often tracing lineage to a common ancestor. It's basically the extended family. Tribes are large group of people with a common culture and language and (often but not always) territory. So, a tribe can consist out of clans, but it doesn't have to. If you describe a government as "clan-based" to my mind, family heritage and bloodline play a very large part, since that is what determines belonging to the clan. If you describe a government as "tribal" to my mind, it's more about one (or more) of the members of the ethnic tribe being selected in some fashion (e.g. a council of elders) being the leaders.
Could you post the image somewhere for us? It's fantastic and I'd like to be able to throw it up somewhere when I'm working. Awesome stream, this is another fantastic resource that you've provided us!
The model I discuss here is available in my ko-fi shop for "pay what you want", so you can download it free of charge. ko-fi.com/s/dfc7f60d79 It includes the model itself and some notes on how to use it.
This is an awesome amalgamation of different authors' works and incredibly handy with the pdf. Very comprehensive. Feels academic. And you link to different videos for those wanting a deep-dive. Amazing!
As I'm watching, I keep shouting, "This is so cool," at my screen. Showing how to work through the model with an IRL culture really drives it home. I can't wait to start using this.
The Cultural Norms circle contains so many opportunities for storytelling. I love the taboo example you gave of someone commanding on someone else's ship. That could be the basis of an entire plot arc.
Thank you :)
This the most comprehensive take on culture I have ever seen! Wow! I need this as a poster on my wall!
>.>
I've been showing most of my cultural worldbuilding by having major characters from four different backgrounds---pseudo-Scandinavian nobility, pseudo-Celtic working class, pseudo-Romance lower class, and... best I can call it is hybrid-Atlantean-Anglo-Saxon middle-class. It makes a nice contrast, showing how they react to certain situations differently. Plus, I can weave fun debates over the preference for saunas vs Roman-style baths into my character banter. XD
I use a similar model to establish my cultural structure, however, my model differs a bit from yours in the following ways. Rather than “material conditions,” I have “subsistence life-support,” where subsistence includes everything including spirituality, sex, etc. that a character, family, community, clan, band, tribe, species requires. I retain your cross-cutting identity lines. My subsistence functions always have counterparts in identities. Thus, while sex is a subsistence function, gender is an identity. My concentric circles differ from yours too. My inner circle is the mind (which includes the thoughts, ethics, mental models, philosophy, core values). This is important as it is here that the individual struggles internally with themselves. Ultimately, the mind must change for any other change to willingly take place. My second circle is the individual-individual and the social/cultural norms/laws/symbols/expressions/etc. that affect that relationship, next is individual-family, and family-family, ditto. Next, individual-community, family-community, community-community, ditto, etc., etc. Since the interaction between your circles is also captured in my model, I have conceptualized my model as a matrix rather than as concentric spheres. I have this matrix in the form of a spreadsheet. I refer to this matrix when considering the cultural implications of a scene and its effects on actions and dialogue. The cross-cutting identities are the headings in the horizontal rows, the cross-cutting subsistence life-support functions are the headings in the vertical columns and the X-X, X-Y etc. relationships are the cells of the 2-D matrix. I trickle rather than dump the culture and its lore into the scene as appropriate by incorporating descriptive details related to the thoughts, decisions and actions of the interacting characters when this is useful to advance the plot. I have one such matrix for each faction as the hierarchical societal structure might vary between factions - my example was for a clan. When two factions with different hierarchical societal structures meet, the encounter will affect each society differently. I hope this makes sense and that it is potentially useful to you and your audience. 😊
Lol the bundle of sticks was called the fasces, it's where the term fascism/fascist comes from (and is pronounced the same) 'cause Mussolini used the fasces as a symbol of italian heritage in his ideology
Thanks! My tongue kept tripping over it and make it uhm, with an e...
@@JustInTimeWorlds the thought of Roman rulers carrying around “feces” instead made me laugh out loud 😂
So I'm curious on what your thoughts would be on a sovereign power, government and culture that is based on thievery?
You could build a culture that starts as a thieves guild or a pirate haven and then expand? There would probably need to be some kind of safety somewhere, probably related to protection money?
@@JustInTimeWorlds I do have it planned where they have a treaty with a neighboring kingdom where they don't steal from them in exchange for their protection from other powers
You might look into the Old Man in the Mountain stories of the original a$$assins. It sounds like your government might follow that kind of pattern :)
I'm not so sure I like the usage of the effected and not effected by culture lines I belive perhaps a better usage of those lines would be locality as in does this cultural influence come from internal or external factors
I'm not following? Everything affects the culture. The lines that run through the cultural circles affect every circle of the culture, that's why they bisect them all?
you mention but don't describe the difference between a tribal group and a clan group. But everyone on UA-cam describes a tribe as a group of clans. So I don't understand what distinction you are making between these two ideas. The way I understand it, a clan is how a culture organizes the family unit and a tribe is how the clans are governed. Please explain if you understand these terms differently. thanks.
So, tribes can be multiple clans or how clans are governed, but it doesn't have to be. The definition I work with:
Clans are typically smaller groups united by actual or perceived kinship and descent, often tracing lineage to a common ancestor. It's basically the extended family.
Tribes are large group of people with a common culture and language and (often but not always) territory. So, a tribe can consist out of clans, but it doesn't have to.
If you describe a government as "clan-based" to my mind, family heritage and bloodline play a very large part, since that is what determines belonging to the clan.
If you describe a government as "tribal" to my mind, it's more about one (or more) of the members of the ethnic tribe being selected in some fashion (e.g. a council of elders) being the leaders.
@@JustInTimeWorlds thanks for the clarification.
Could you post the image somewhere for us? It's fantastic and I'd like to be able to throw it up somewhere when I'm working. Awesome stream, this is another fantastic resource that you've provided us!
You can grab it right here: ko-fi.com/s/dfc7f60d79 And there's some of my notes included in the PDF.
@@JustInTimeWorlds Thank you so much!