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ferengee are they Indian enough for this corner of the Cosmos ?

javen

Cadet
Newbie
Hi Guys and Gals,

I'm not a trekkie a niner or a fanatic, I like scifi but not enough to go convention hopping, so the question you'll be asking is what's the reason for joining up and posting ? well I seem to have found a link between the ferengee and the British Empire in India, there is a word that is still in use in the English language called Thug, this comes from the word Thuggee, without going into a huge description the Thuggee's were a tribe with a culture for aquiring property without the usual work involved, there were rules and a culture, "Rules of Aquisition", they were bought down by a thuggee leader called "Feringhea", upon whom later a book was written, all this may seem circumstantial until you look at the apparent profiling that the ferengee are suffering from, from my perspective they seem to be taking on an Indian characteristic, even when you consider the jewellery, so that is the reason I'm posting, it may be an old chestnut here, but I thought it might help somebody who is doing a serious work on the culture of Scifi in relation to past culture etc etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuggee

The Thugs were suppressed by the British rulers of India during the 1830s.[6] The initiative was due largely to the efforts of civil servant William Henry Sleeman, who captured "Feringhea" (also known as Syeed Amir Ali, on whom the novel Confessions of a Thug is based)

Have a look and let me know what you all think, is it a connection is there a cultural or historic basis for the ferengee in British Empire India ?
 
The name Ferengi was based on the Arabic word for foreigners Farangi, the intention was they were meant to represent 20th century western capitalists when they were created in 1987.
 
Like many aliens in ST, Ferengi were meant to portray an aspect of humanity. The Ferengi represent humanity's preoccupation with money and objects. They have an entire society based on American predatory capitalism.
 
The name Ferengi was based on the Arabic word for foreigners Farangi, the intention was they were meant to represent 20th century western capitalists when they were created in 1987.
That's interesting, the Thai word for foreigner is Farang. Specifically a European.
 
There are similar variations in quite a few eastern languages .
 
IIRC. Rick Berman worked on documentaries and did some traveling, before joining Paramount. He might have used terms he picked up on his travels in Star Trek. I've heard "Suliban" was based on "Taliban".
 
IIRC. Rick Berman worked on documentaries and did some traveling, before joining Paramount. He might have used terms he picked up on his travels in Star Trek. I've heard "Suliban" was based on "Taliban".
it seems reasonable to me that documentary writers are more like reporters in that they represent the facts put before them, I guess that that would influence the World view used for DS9.
 
Like many aliens in ST, Ferengi were meant to portray an aspect of humanity. The Ferengi represent humanity's preoccupation with money and objects. They have an entire society based on American predatory capitalism.
A bit of a digression, but the goblins who run the magical bank in the Harry Potter movies seem very much like the Ferengi. I've read that a lot of elements from Harry Potter were borrowed from various sources, so I'd not be surprised if the goblins were based on DS9's Ferengis.
 
Hi Guys and Gals,

I'm not a trekkie a niner or a fanatic, I like scifi but not enough to go convention hopping, so the question you'll be asking is what's the reason for joining up and posting ? well I seem to have found a link between the ferengee and the British Empire in India, there is a word that is still in use in the English language called Thug, this comes from the word Thuggee, without going into a huge description the Thuggee's were a tribe with a culture for aquiring property without the usual work involved, there were rules and a culture, "Rules of Aquisition", they were bought down by a thuggee leader called "Feringhea", upon whom later a book was written, all this may seem circumstantial until you look at the apparent profiling that the ferengee are suffering from, from my perspective they seem to be taking on an Indian characteristic, even when you consider the jewellery, so that is the reason I'm posting, it may be an old chestnut here, but I thought it might help somebody who is doing a serious work on the culture of Scifi in relation to past culture etc etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuggee

The Thugs were suppressed by the British rulers of India during the 1830s.[6] The initiative was due largely to the efforts of civil servant William Henry Sleeman, who captured "Feringhea" (also known as Syeed Amir Ali, on whom the novel Confessions of a Thug is based)

Have a look and let me know what you all think, is it a connection is there a cultural or historic basis for the ferengee in British Empire India ?
It does seem like a stretch to me, considering that the central, dominant aspect of the Thuggees is that they were Kali's murder cult of stranglers, not predatory capitalists.

Many of them were well-off and even influential, but many not--that wasn't a requirement. On the other hand, this word--Phansigar--does sound like Ferenginar, doesn't it?

If Suliban is based on Taliban, then we can conclude that these names and concepts are only VERY loosely based on these putative origins.
 
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Everything comes from something before it. You have to start somewhere. The Star Wars languages are mostly deliberately mixed up human languages most Americans won't identify, like Zulu, Incan and Asian languages. That doesn't mean Jabba the Hutt is meant be Zulu in any way, shape or form.
 
it seems reasonable to me that documentary writers are more like reporters in that they represent the facts put before them, I guess that that would influence the World view used for DS9.

Documentary producers present their audiences with non-fiction, but a key difference between documentaries and the news is that documentaries often have the aim of advocating a particular point of view, instead of being expected to maintain a semblance of neutrality and objectivity like the news.

Kor
 
If Suliban is based on Taliban, then we can conclude that these names and concepts are only VERY loosely based on these putative origns
It's just the names. Writer's do that all of the time. I don't think the cultures of the Suliban or the Ferengi are based on the cultures the names were derived from.
 
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