Exotic and interesting customs

[Pooka]

Hi !

Strange an exotic ? Read China Mieville ("Perdido Street Station" and "The Scar")... there you will get really strange creatures and their cultures! And you will have fun with reading an excellent book. All in one !


Pooka

 

[GladiusNP]

I read about a really interesting culture by Jack Vance, in a story called the Moon Moth. Although they have a basic language, all communication used one of several instruments. The instruments varied in what they meant - for example, the main character played a certain musical instrument to a craftsmen, who ended up very insulted as the instrument used implied a level of friendship that was non-existant. For slaves, a kind of rattle was used, and it was considered an insult to use this to anyone else. A horn or drum, I think, was used to communicate aggression. I've left the book at work, but I could get it sometime if people needed more details.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I believe there was an ancient culture that used to bury preserved corpses of relatives inside the furniture in their houses, and had a much closer relationship with the deceased. I can't remember who it was though. Heck, I might even be remembering it completely wrong, but even if I am I still like the idea. Imagine pulling grandma out of the trunk to share dinner with you during a festival of the dead, or to commune with her spirit for advice!

Some use to place them under the floor boards and their spirits would remain with the family, if they moved they would take the remains with them.

 

[jasper]

The most beautiful girl and Handsome guy are married, then burn to death to please the gods. I forget which Amazon tribe does this.
Host offers his wife to guests.
No eating during daylight hours for a week. Water is okay.
Head nod up and down equals no.
Instead of cows horses are divine. Look that Stranger is riding Aunt May string him up.
Codpieces mandatory.
Ritual face scaring equals beauty. Penalties on Charisma checks.
Here is one I working on. The dead are divine and undead are restless spirits come for justice. So it is not nice for Chuck Cleric to turn undead Darryl.
The dead are cooked and eaten. Ymm wizard burgers yum.
Unmarriaged males and females must sleep in separate houses.
You must marry a cousin.

 

[gamecat]

A warrior culture that exists to venerate their six-armed war god. The god finds candles made red by the blood of the fallen (enemy and friend) to be sacred.

 

[Mallus]

I'll second reading The Moon Moth --and Vance in general-- for inspiration. As well as Mieville.

And I'll add Gene Wolfe, for his Book of the New Sun.

And a writer that isn't too well known, Paul Park. His Starbridge Chronicles are chock-full of bizarre cultural details/customs. Such as, from the 1st book, Soldiers of Paradise, the fact that the members of poorest caste in the city of Charn are forced by law to wear piss-yellow plastic jumpsuits and speak in annoying flasetto voices. Plus, the religious customs of their Church --which used the pornographic writings of an ancient astronaut as the basis for their gospel-- are priceless. The author spent a lot of time in India as well, so for as bizarre as his inventions get, they're also oddly reminescent of an actual culture...

 

[Ham_Slaad]

Well, as someone mentioned above, Dune had some interesting cultural features, arising from the central premise that water is universally scarce (at least on Arrakis) and is therefore precious...wealth is measured in water, etc. Using a central theme like that and taking it to the logical extreme for a society is a good way to come up with some cultural norms.

In the dim past I was an anthropology major, so I'll give you some made up examples based on some memory fragments.

A culture where height = status. Taller people are assumed to be of high status, those who are naturally born shorter walk on specially made stilts to indicate their actual status. In conversation, the person with more status stands while others sit to show they recognize their place -- it is considered an affront to stand while someone of importance is speaking to you. It is considered rude to be tall and not have a commensurate position that warrants it (i.e. visiting PC's could be considered "uppity" if they are tall and have no station; could even get challenged to a duel if they insist on not making the proper changes in their attitude and posture).

Amazons of Greek mythology reputedly cut off their right breast so it wouldn't interfere with their archery (i.e. drawing a bow across their chest was made "easier").

A culture which uses leaves from a particularly rare tree as currency. Thus money is both transient (it only lasts as long as the leaf retains its integrity, eventually it will crumble into dust) and dependent on a particular season (fall) -- it could be illegal to take leaves from the tree before it falls naturally. There could be a festival centered around the leaves falling where new millionaires are made, etc. etc. etc.

There are all sorts of things that can be made up if you start from a central premise and work from there. Somewhat 2 dimensional, but can make for some strange customs to outsiders.

 

[dren]

In my home province of Manitoba whenever someone is going to get married, the couple has what is called a "social".... Not a super-weird or exciting custom, but I'm told it's unique to our province.

It's not. Most provinces in Canada have "Stag & Doe" dances to raise funds. Often it's organized by the best man and maid of honour; at other times it is the husband's family, to offset the cost that the bride's family will pay at the actual wedding.

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I like customs around death, including:

-leaving food / money out for the grim reaper to avoid them killing a loved one

-not mentioning a dead person's name until after the funeral

-taking the shows off a corpse so the restless soul can't get back home to haunt the living. (this is from certain north american native tribes I believe)

-burying is outlawed, so bodies are placed in a magical masoleum where people can pay a fee to talk to the departed ones

-not only covering mirrors but doors and windows in black silk after a person died

-the dead can only be buried naked

-white, not black, is the colour of mourning. I believe this is ancient Japanese custom

-all of the funeral mourners must stab the victim with a ceremonical dagger, as a ritual death killing that they control

-the spirit of the decesed shows up to the funeral. They say nothing, but they hear all of the words spoken to them. It is believed if you say bad things about them, they may end up haunting you

 

[Darth Shoju]

It's not. Most provinces in Canada have "Stag & Doe" dances to raise funds. Often it's organized by the best man and maid of honour; at other times it is the husband's family, to offset the cost that the bride's family will pay at the actual wedding.

Ahh ic. Perhaps it is the term "social" that is unique then? Although here I think it's up to the bride and groom themselves to throw the shindig.

 

[ejja_1]

Here it's called a bridal shower, and beleave me the Groom Pays!
Oh does he pay!