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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8338664" data-attributes="member: 42582">Here is a discussion of processes of diffusion of technologies and attendant aspects of culture - its from Hodgson, The Great Western Transmutation (pp 44 and 46-47 of Rethinking World History):[spoiler][ATTACH=full]140348[/ATTACH][/spoiler](I'm pretty confident that the word &quot;cited&quot; in the fifth line of the third paragraph is a typo for &quot;citied&quot;.)This is obviously not the last word on such social processes. My reason for posting it is to show what serious social explanation looks like. It doesn't appeal to notions of &quot;primitiveness&quot; or &quot;progress&quot;. It tries to identify what it is about a particular social or economic situation that makes it stable, or unstable, and why such social arrangements might tend to be taken up in other societies (thereby perhaps eliminating the differences between societies).I wouldn't expect RPG designers to attempt this degree of sophistication in their writing of fiction - the only fantasy author I know of who has tried anything like that is JRRT, and in his case only in respect of languages, not material cultures or relations of production and other social relations beyond those revealed in language-use. RPG designers will rely on a repertoire of available tropes for social life, just as they do for other things (eg dragons, giant spiders, spell casters, etc).Insofar as some tropes rest upon, or bring with them, presuppositions about various sorts of human beings (eg those which present certain peoples as &quot;primitive&quot; just because) then RPG designers should probably handle them with care.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8338664, member: 42582"] Here is a discussion of processes of diffusion of technologies and attendant aspects of culture - its from Hodgson, The Great Western Transmutation (pp 44 and 46-47 of Rethinking World History): [spoiler][ATTACH type="full"]140348[/ATTACH][/spoiler] (I'm pretty confident that the word "cited" in the fifth line of the third paragraph is a typo for "citied".) This is obviously not the last word on such social processes. My reason for posting it is to show what serious social explanation looks like. It doesn't appeal to notions of "primitiveness" or "progress". It tries to identify what it is about a particular social or economic situation that makes it stable, or unstable, and why such social arrangements might tend to be taken up in other societies (thereby perhaps eliminating the differences between societies). I wouldn't expect RPG designers to attempt this degree of sophistication in their writing of fiction - the only fantasy author I know of who has tried anything like that is JRRT, and in his case only in respect of languages, not material cultures or relations of production and other social relations beyond those revealed in language-use. RPG designers will rely on a repertoire of available tropes for social life, just as they do for other things (eg dragons, giant spiders, spell casters, etc). Insofar as some tropes rest upon, or bring with them, presuppositions about various sorts of human beings (eg those which present certain peoples as "primitive" [I]just because[/I]) then RPG designers should probably handle them with care. [/QUOTE]

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