Questions tagged [culture]
For questions dealing with the customary and artistic characteristics of a society.
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What is the least "world changing" reason why the government would pay for you to keep a llama during your 44th year of life? [closed]
I want to make a short story about an Earth just like ours, except it's commonly accepted that at the age of 43, the government allows people to have a llama in their house. The government pays for ...
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Would a culture with magic consider it magic? [closed]
I was discussing with a buddy of mine about magic and how it could easily be explained using alternate laws of physics. She replied simply "Magic that relies on alternate physics is only magic to ...
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How would people living in eternal day learn that stars exist?
In a world I am building, the day lasts longer than the year, 9 times longer in fact. The native people of this world have been forced to migrate around the world, both avoiding the scorching desert ...
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Are there any rules or guidelines about designing a flag?
I'm trying to come up with a flag for a fantasy city I'm designing, and it got me thinking about how flags are designed in general and where they draw their inspirations from.
For the most part, I ...
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Zero Privacy: Culture
In this future, technology advances in such a way that privacy becomes obsolete. In other words, no one has decided to give up privacy, it's just that trying to hold onto it is like trying to keep ...
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How Would a Post-Planetary Civilization Measure Time?
Our perception of time is steeped in the rhythms of our world, and blended with the most ancient of superstitions, decrees and mathematical conveniences. Thus we have days that track our world's ...
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Why would a civilization outfit buildings with separate portals for entering and leaving them? [closed]
Human buildings usually have one or more doors which combine the function of an entrance and an exit, emergency exits being the only notable example I can think of, albeit designed for contingency use....
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Why would a civilization develop a taboo against a highly nutritious food that grows well in its climate?
A human civilization, civilization X, decides that food Y is not fit for consumption. Food Y grows well in its climate, is highly nutritious and tasty, and is not harmful to its inhabitants. Food Y ...
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Why Do My Super-Soldiers Constantly Mutter Their Thoughts Out Loud?
I am creating a race (either near-alien or a human sub-species) in a science fiction setting that have an unfortunate "tell." While they can stay silent in non-social (stealth-requiring) ...
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How can I provide reasons for racism?
OK, I know the question sounds a little bit extreme, but I'm writing a story in which there are two races of a same species, both rational and civilized, with cities and everything an actual society ...
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Does a hexagon-based bread loaf make any sense?
Back in the day, during a writing jam, I started wondering it'd be good if a culture in my world would have loafs of bread resembling a hexagon-based tube. Almost like a cylinder, but with six well ...
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Would descendants of Earth people stranded on another planet eventually forget about Earth?
The world I'm building would be based on a new planet discovered and colonized by modern humans (us, essentially).
But then some disaster or another happens, and the end result is that all contact ...
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Society rules for marriages and love on multigeneration ship
Earth, far future: We built multi generation ship which can get 20 000 people to another solar system in next 20 generations (600 years)
For scope of this question assume that ship itself is well ...
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Creating convincingly alien viewpoints
Most aliens tend to be humans with bumpy foreheads and/or pointy ears. Even when they do have differences then usually it is an entire species being portrayed as a particular brand of human. For ...
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Avoiding moral hazard concerning Pokolpok (ancient Maya ball game)
Literature Review
Pokolpok is the Mayan term for an ancient ball game that was played throughout Mesoamerica in antiquity. While much about the game (even the rules) has been lost to time, ...
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