Quote:
Originally Posted by jason taylor
Cultural merging:
One of the things many ethnologists noted about the ISW era was cultural merging. Not only was there considerable Terranization among the Vilani there was considerable Vilanicization among the Terrans. This was encouraged by areas of space remaining disputed for years or even generations as well as by trade and intermarriage in truce periods.
Some of the oddities were utilitarian and some aesthetic. The two sides would pick up each other's equipment and customs to taste. The result could see some oddities as a Vilani ship using Terran naval custom with the captain's tolerance (only OUTSIDE of the view of a flag officer or inspector of course) or a Terran sporting Vilani dress. As much of Vilani fashion is attractive and Terrans have spent thousands of years fighting wars, aping each other in this manner is not to be surprising. Useful items like tools could be traded or captured back and forth and some minipolities lived on the border and took whatever side was convenient at the time.
|
Good call! Any two cultures in contact will exchange ideas. images, memes, and often genes. It would be another area for Anthropologists, especially the ethnographers, to examine closely. Just as a virus might be trivial in one population and devastating in another, so a meme harmless in one culture could bring chaos in another.