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Old 09-06-2019, 09:20 AM   #51
Luke Bunyip
 
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Default Re: Curious Local Customs

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Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
Museums rent expensive pieces from rich patrons. Purchasing art objects is a way to store money (come to think of it they may actually do that but whatever).
A mate that's a professional artist recently said to me that given that the value of a particular art work is periodically determined by a group of rich people (aka an auction), artwork is effectively an alternative currency.

But the frisson between private wealth and popular acclaim could give some basis for a culturally specific quirk. Maybe something along the lines of the social or political benefits of lending one's artwork to a museum, as opposed to keeping it secured in a vault.

...and then the iconoclasts turn up.
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Old 09-06-2019, 10:11 AM   #52
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Default Re: Curious Local Customs

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We already have the expression in English- "to wear different hats," or "I'm wearing my lawyer's hat today." Although I'm not clear on what historical customs it refers to.
Sure. I don't know about that either. I am proposing a culture where that has an unusual significance.
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Old 09-06-2019, 10:13 AM   #53
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Default Re: Curious Local Customs

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Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip View Post
A mate that's a professional artist recently said to me that given that the value of a particular art work is periodically determined by a group of rich people (aka an auction), artwork is effectively an alternative currency.

But the frisson between private wealth and popular acclaim could give some basis for a culturally specific quirk. Maybe something along the lines of the social or political benefits of lending one's artwork to a museum, as opposed to keeping it secured in a vault.

...and then the iconoclasts turn up.
Old money tends to like to buy prestige rather than buying money; that is why they run out and have to do that cliche of Marrying A Railroader's Daughter Across the Pond. Having them lease and the cost be passed on to donators or ticket sales is a way to take a third option.

As a side note it is a way of "ennobleing" money gotten from a mundane sourse. Thus instead of putting it in a bank where it just gets-more money, he gets an income out of art and art is cool. It is really a similar idea to the idea of buying lots and lots of fancy jewelry and just wearing your wealth but having something to liquidate if there is a pogram and you have to go on the run. And in the meantime having something to wear to a ball. Except in the case I describe, while it is sitting there it is actually taking in money.
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Old 09-06-2019, 10:25 AM   #54
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Everyone except the lowest level of society wears a custom-designed mask when out in public. And the lowest level just wear a bandanna to cover their lower face. Going bare-faced is an act of great intimacy or indecency.
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Old 09-06-2019, 11:37 AM   #55
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Everyone except the lowest level of society wears a custom-designed mask when out in public. And the lowest level just wear a bandanna to cover their lower face. Going bare-faced is an act of great intimacy or indecency.
Corollary: The registry of masks is a massively sacred place.
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Old 09-06-2019, 11:59 AM   #56
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Corollary: The registry of masks is a massively sacred place.
Both of those are actually pretty good.

Some other corollaries:

There is a Mystery Religion where masks are opened.

Masks are taken on in a Rite of Passage. The design is discovered after a Vision Quest.

When a deed is performed a badge is placed on the mask.
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Old 09-06-2019, 12:28 PM   #57
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How do people who constantly wear masks over their lower faces eat, especially in public? dinners have been a form of socialization of millennia. Though I suppose splitting up by gender could work, if its a modesty thing.
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Old 09-06-2019, 12:36 PM   #58
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How do people who constantly wear masks over their lower faces eat, especially in public? dinners have been a form of socialization of millennia. Though I suppose splitting up by gender could work, if its a modesty thing.
That's one possibility. Or the mask could leave the nose and lower face open.
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Old 09-06-2019, 02:09 PM   #59
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Default Re: Curious Local Customs

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How do people who constantly wear masks over their lower faces eat, especially in public? dinners have been a form of socialization of millennia. Though I suppose splitting up by gender could work, if its a modesty thing.
Two possibilities are suggested by works of Jack Vance. In The Moon Moth people of the mask-wearing class (i.e. not slaves) ate alone except as a very initimate romantic thing. In Marune (which had a taboo on ingestion rather than facial exposure, but is still suggestive) people ate alone for convenience, but for social meals they put food into their mouths behind screens or fans.
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Old 09-06-2019, 04:59 PM   #60
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Default Re: Curious Local Customs

Couldn't they just have a nasal bridge that allowed them to be bent creating a gap between face and mask? That should create enough of a space to put eating utensils under and through.
We cover our lower faces when we need to talk with food in our mouths, after all.
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