Mono Culture Societies, the questions.

[valkyrie013]

Okay, was reading another book, had a warrior society, where warriors were held in the highest estem, at the top of the food chain in there society.
In that book, there was an offshoot of that society, that wanted to end the reign of the Warrior First society. However, they were having troubles doing that.
After so many century's a "Warrior First" society was created. EVERYONE in that society wanted to be a warrior. They had be the best housed, the most funding, etc. No one wanted to be a merchant, or a doctor, when born they all wanted to be warriors, and those merchants, etc. wanted there sons or daughters to be warriors as well. No one grew up WANTING to be a merchant, or anything else other than a warrior.

Reading this book, gave me more insight into Klingon society than all the episodes of trek concerning the Klingons.
There are a a Warrior based society, some time in the past, warriors were put on the top of the pedistle, and worshiped as something to aspire to be. Maybe there whole history is one of war, maybe like some books say they were invaded and had to fight off there invaders, and the warriors took over the system.
Many instances of non warriors having less status in there society, we've seen doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. treated differently, as a 2nd class citizen.

So, was also thinking of the other "Mono Cultures" of trek, and how best to explain how they got there.

thoughts?

 

[Vger23]

Seems reasonable.

The "mono culture" thing never really bothered me, and I don't actually think it totally holds water, anyway. We've seen tons of different types of Vulcans, Klingons, Ferengi, Romulans, Cardassians, etc. Yes, for the purposes of weekly sci-fi television, do they need to have some overriding "defining characteristics?" Well sure they do. But, ultimately, I don't think it's as bad as some pretend it is.

 

[fireproof78]

Okay, was reading another book, had a warrior society, where warriors were held in the highest estem, at the top of the food chain in there society.
In that book, there was an offshoot of that society, that wanted to end the reign of the Warrior First society. However, they were having troubles doing that.
After so many century's a "Warrior First" society was created. EVERYONE in that society wanted to be a warrior. They had be the best housed, the most funding, etc. No one wanted to be a merchant, or a doctor, when born they all wanted to be warriors, and those merchants, etc. wanted there sons or daughters to be warriors as well. No one grew up WANTING to be a merchant, or anything else other than a warrior.

Reading this book, gave me more insight into Klingon society than all the episodes of trek concerning the Klingons.
There are a a Warrior based society, some time in the past, warriors were put on the top of the pedistle, and worshiped as something to aspire to be. Maybe there whole history is one of war, maybe like some books say they were invaded and had to fight off there invaders, and the warriors took over the system.
Many instances of non warriors having less status in there society, we've seen doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. treated differently, as a 2nd class citizen.

So, was also thinking of the other "Mono Cultures" of trek, and how best to explain how they got there.

thoughts?

The only reason I oppose "mono cultures" is because it tends to become a lazy writing shortcut that says "everyone" must be a warrior, logical, argumentative, a hunter, or greedy. SF Debris used the example of Germany, saying that if we were to apply mono culture rules there would not be room for philosophers like Nietzsche, or Frankl, or more innovation, because Germany, especially in the 20th century, espoused a very mechanical, war like, expansionistic ideology.

So, your example makes sense because it is a culture that was created based upon needs on that planet, their experiences, and that there was even an offshoot that attempted to make changes, which I think is valid and allows for variety, even if the larger culture appears more monolithic.

The Klingons, in my opinion, had great groundwork laid in TOS in that they were "the stronger" and came from resource poor worlds so expanding made sense to them. In other words, as the Great Houses developed, likely from tribes, there would be fairly frequent battling over resources, leading to that expansionistic attitude against other powers.

Sounds like an interesting book.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

The thing is that the Klingons you're most likely to run into as members of Starfleet are the warriors. Or, in the case of representatives, ex-warriors.

The needs of the story dictate which ones you'll encounter. So if you're doing an episode about an alien religion, you'll meet those who are highly interested in it, either as followers/scholars or critics/persecutors. If you're doing an episode about a scientific project, you'll meet scientists.

 

[Finn]

1. They don't show us everything about each race.

2. However, some of them may have gotten relatively homogeneous after being warp capable for many centuries, especially the ones with violent history.

 

[Nyotarules]

Making up a diverse culture might be difficult but having only humans with diverse cultures is a bit boring. It's funny that TOS Vulcans were a little more diverse than TNG/ENT ones. A planet of billions would not have the same hairdresser, that was just stupid.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I guess they want recurring alien races to be recognizable at a glance/in a moment for context. Unlike Human cultural groups, we can't rely on cues we recognize from people we know to determine what aliens these are.

 

[Nyotarules]

I guess they want recurring alien races to be recognizable at a glance/in a moment for context. Unlike Human cultural groups, we can't rely on cues we recognize from people we know to determine what aliens these are.

For Vulcans the pointed ears were a huge clue in TOS and it worked

 

[C.E. Evans]

I've always been in the camp that most alien races are not monolithic, but our heroes are likely to encounter only a certain type during their adventures. During deep-space missions, Starfleet crews are likely to mainly encounter Klingon warriors and vice-versa. I have no doubt that there are brilliant Klingon scientists, engineers, doctors, scholars, and artists--but you probably won't see many of them serving aboard a Klingon battlecruiser. Same thing goes for the Romulans and countless other Star Trek aliens, IMO. Heck, there's probably even a segment of Vulcan society that adheres to a less rigid form of "the Way of Surak" and are known to demonstrate mild or subdued emotions once in a while without any embarrassment, but they may be few are far between.

 

[Shawnster]

The problem, for lack of a better word, is the mono culture thinking extends to ALL aspects of said species.

All Vulcans typically have the same haircut. Language is always referred to as if the species only has 1 language. Everyone in said species typically dresses the same. Each species is typically monolithic in religion. Klingons are all warriors (even the accordion at the Klingon restaurant on DS9 had spikes), Romulans are all shifty spies.

There are exceptions, mind you, typically when the story specifically calls for it. Some of the exceptions only came after decades. TNG showed us 1 black Romulan. VOY finally introduced a black Vulcan. Bajorans probably had the most variety of hairstyles.

Only humans come in all shapes, sizes, colors, hair styles, clothing, etc... Only humans have a variety of living, current languages such as English. Swahili, Russian.

Religion is still very much monolithic. Babylon 5 had a similar situation. They tried to address it in 1 episode where Sinclair introduced the Vorlon (I think) ambassador to representatives of various human religions, but even then, it was only humans who had this variety.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Only humans come in all shapes, sizes, colors, hair styles, clothing, etc...

Probably not to aliens who generally encounter only white male Starfleet officers with short hair.