Retitled from 'The Culture of Diversity'

Humans make for an unusual case study. Much of what one could say would appear to be self evident, and yet the most insightful of comments would be those self same 'self evident' observations... things so common we miss them utterly. Unlike Elves and dwarves, or even Goblins, we cannot simply use a comparison system, nor does a Ur-culture exist for Humanity, as we can demonstrate exists for our previous subjects.  There are fewer assumptions to be made, and fewer generalizations.

Assumption One: Humans did not arise from a single source or tribe and spread, but according to what historical sources we can access arose sporadically from a previous, more savage existance, world wide. If there was an Ur-culture for humanity, it existed in that prototypical species, and it's vestiges are buried deep indeed.

Assumption Two: Humans are both a young race, appearing late on the scene compared to many others, and an Old race, with a history going back to previous ages (perhaps in this presumed Proto-Savage humanity of antiquity).

Assumption Three: Humans are not as gifted in ways that the Elves and Dwarves take for granted, yet are capable, with work, of achieving the same dizzying heights. Given their comparatively short lifespans (one third that of a dwarf), the fact that Humans can acheive prowess on par with that of millenia old Elves is a remarkable trait in itself.

Assumption Four: Humans can interbreed with Elves and Orks, producing fertile hybrids with either species. This is not so much an assumption as established fact, though Source documents disagree with the level of fertility or its universality, the evidence suggests that such Hybrids are a fact of life. What IS assumption is what this implies from a biological standpoint. Normally biological studies are left to more specialized studies, but in this case it is relevant for how it impacts the culture(s) of humanity and what it implies of the origins of human cultures.

Assumption Five: while human cultures have a wide variety of taboo's and acceptable ranges of activity there are a few reasonable constants that appear in all human cultures known. We will, perforce, accept these constants as the hard facts of human Culture. To illustrate, we will be forced to rely on contrasting with other civilized races.



It is a matter of record in some sources that Humans have arrisen in the distant past in isolated cases, raised mighty civilizations and then fallen. It is a matter of some speculation that such historical Men were not precisely the humans of the current age.  Considering that such civilizations, for as far as we can tell, arose in a vacuum of competing human civilizations, we can assume that they were analomies, early Proto-Savages that became fully human in advance of a species wide development.  Given that none survived until the accepted appearance of Man on the world's stage, and each existed independently, a study of their cultures is irrelvant to the topic at hand, other than to note how they affect the modern ages.  It is important to note that some Elves remembers such humans, and others consider them a seperate race entirely. There is correspondingly a suggestion that a sufficently advanced Human Civilization becomes something other than human, certainly in the minds of outside races.  

Regardless, Humans were already an agricultural culture with early cities when the Dwarves exited their mountain holdfasts. Of note, this is not universal, to this day nomadic bands of hunter-gatherer humans still exist, as do smaller tribes of 'pre-agricultural' humans, development of human culture seems to be partially dependent upon environment, moreso than other races. That is, other races might be shaped by great forces in the environment, but only Human culture seems to be positively dependent upon environmnet to shape it. Notably, however, Humans are also among the most wide spread race, existing in significant numbers across a wider range of environments than any other race. It is said that there are jungles that hold tribes of savage humans that Elves will not enter, for fear of the woodcraft of the men there. Reports of underground cities of humans come from Dwarven traders.

Humans are capable of a wide range of activies, but seem to adopt certain universal taboo's.  Murder for personal gain is always frowned upon. This may seem trite, even silly to mention, but it should be noted that Elves have never held the same regard, and Dwarves have never considered it a bad thing to murder another dwarf if it strengthens the Community. Murder, in the dwarven case, is a poor choice of words. Allowing a 'weak' dwarf to die in the course of daily events (Boulder Breaking, say) is preferrable to letting them drag everyone else down.  Elven murder is generally tied to status, you can't score points off the dead, but occasionally you can replace them. The STYLE that the murder is committed with is more important than the death. It is, however, rare for either race to commit the act of deliberate killing for its own sake. Ironically, it is not so for humans. This suggests that the cultural taboo is a direct response to behavior.  Even goblins do not kill each other out of mere hate. Greed, hunger, or in the course of an argument, certainly. But to the Goblin mindset, seeking out one who you dislike for the purpose of murder is alien.  Humans and dwarves will kill over 'wrongs', humans and Elves will kill over ambition, humans and Goblins will kill for greed.   Only humans have a general taboo over killing.  

The same thing could be said about theft, or nearly so. No human civilization has ever embraced theft as tolerable. Elves view property as a myth, and taking a valued item from a rival is an important part of counting coup. Dwarves naturally view theft among dwarves (or allies) as incredibly wrong, but will cheerfully cheat and steal from outsiders depending upon the individuals involved. A dwarven theif is either a highly respected member of his community (for turning his skills against outsiders and disbursing the profits amongs the community) or is a reviled outcast in constant fear for his life, there is no middle ground.  Goblins naturally are only concerned with who actually HAS an item and how they can get it themselves.
Humans, however, universally outlaw theft, yet practice it amongst themselves freely. They alternately idolize their criminals, or revile them, occasionally at the same time. Humans even mythologize trickster gods and hold cunning in high esteem, while revileing those who actually are cunning when it is turned against them.

Humans form Tribes, and clans, but not universally. It would appear to a casual glance that Humans place more emphasis on location of origin, that is city or neighborhood, or 'third cave on the left' than they do familial ties. This is purely speculative, as Humans also exhibit the familial behavior, with a greater tendency to form in non-familial groups than other races.  Species wide, humans show very few ties, preferring even non-human 'locals' over same species 'foriegners', this can be extrapolated out, however. Humans show a great deal of preferential treatment on one end of a spectrum, to outright hostility or rivalry at the far end.  Most humans will be extremely generous with their 'group', be it family or friends, less generous with 'locals' and hostile to some arbitrary 'enemy'. One Human might consider the dwarf down the street a local, while another would consider the same dwarf, despite his geographic proximity, an outsider not to be trusted, while a human from a distant nation with a distinctly different morphology is accepted as a 'fellow human'.  Entire cultures can exibit the same types of selectivity, however, in that one human culture might reject dwarves out of hand while another embraces them but rejects the first human culture as 'evil'.

On the subject of Morphology, humans, among all the races, seem to show the greatest range of difference in appearance, the greatest variation in 'normal height' and 'normal weights'. More interestingly their appearence is often a factor of their birth environment.  Underground humans are exceedingly pale, while Dwarves are universally ruddy skinned, regardless of exposure to sunlight. Elven morphology appears to reflect socio-political lines, rather than causing them.  Humans therefor are more apt than other races to make judgements based on appearences.  This is often exaggerated to pointlessness, but may in fact be a useful survival trait. Larger paler humans are likely to be better adapted to cold environments, and would, by dint of their greater size, be stronger.  There is at least one school of thought that humans breed instinctively on survival traits based on appearence. A large pale human is unattractive and has a harder time surviving in much hotter, sunnier climes, thus is less likely to be chosen for mating behavior.

On the subject of Halfbreeds: There is some confusion in the matter. There are competeing schools of thoughts on the origins of Orcs. If biological compatability is the issue, we can eliminate the theorized Goblin origin, among others, and reduce it to two primary contenders. That Orcs are 'debased' Elves, or that Orcs are related to humans.  The first is interesting in that it explains the identical compatability with both Elves and Orcs for humanity, but doesn't address the issue of why humans can mate with elves at all.  The second theory grows more complex, however. First of all, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest it regardless of biological complexity. Human and orc cultures share a great number of 'markers'. More 'primative' human civilizations are virtually identical to established orc 'tribes', and evidence of mixed race cultures persist in many source documents.  It suggests that Orcs and humans are completely compatable, to the point of being nearly the same race, much as the various Gobliniods are related extensively.  There are those that suggest that Orcs ARE the Proto-Savage Human ur-race, while there are those that suggest that Orcs are 'bred' from human stock. We can blend the two theories quite beautifully, however. Orcs could very well be debased Elves, AND be the Ur-race of Humanity. This would make Elves and Humans very nearly the same race, only a step removed, and would account not only for the biological compatability but also why each race finds the other attractive. It might also explain why Elves and Humans tend to get along almost better than every other race (with again, exceptions for more xenophobic human cultures and the elves exposed to them...).  Like humans, Orcs are highly adaptable to their environment, it is possible that Humans were an intellectual adaptation in response to Elven hostility, where the Orcs brute strength was less effective against elven magic than it was against other races.

Very nice! I am impressed, and will be yoinking all your work for use in my own world.

Quote from: TechnomancerVery nice! I am impressed, and will be yoinking all your work for use in my own world.

Feel free. This one was your request, I might remind you.

I must admit to not being 100% satisfied with this one, like I either left important things out, or misrepresented things that should have been left alone.  Either way, the current rave topic of the week is rather overshadowing my humble contributions... so sad

Hmm, with the taboo against killing, your humans are clearly the most fantastical of the races

Care to elaborate why only humans don't have a mono-culture (or why the other races do)?

Quote from: SosthenesHmm, with the taboo against killing, your humans are clearly the most fantastical of the races

Care to elaborate why only humans don't have a mono-culture (or why the other races do)?

Hmm... I'm sure its in there, probably buried.

Its not so much that other races have or don't have a monoculture. When one elf tribe splits from the 'main' or Ur-Tribe (if it could be called that anymore) or any other tribe for that matter it takes with it elements of that culture, certainly, but it also develops a distinct culture of its own, which is the proximate cause of the split in most cases.  

Dwarves tend towards a distinct culture, but between widespread, often isolated, clanholds much can, and does change. As a race certain things hold true, as they do for humans. Dwarves think of their community and it's survival almost above all else. If one Clanhold took it upon themselves to 'enslave' the womenfolk for breeding, removing the traditional role of women in dwarf culture (selecting mates for the best matches) in favor of attempting to breed as many new dwarves as possible, this would still be within 'tolerences' for Dwarven racial behavior, but the culture would be radically different, and anathama to the predominant patterns.

Goblins culture is driven entirely by evolutionary pressures, only the relatively recent militarization represents a change to a real socially driven cultural artifact.

With humans there are two primary differences. First of all, no two human cultures are necessarily linked. The pre-human race from which all human races sprang may have had a monoculture (as Orcs tend to...), but as each new human culture sprang up in isolation of others, it perforce developed it's own codes of behavior, it's own culture.  Secondly, Humans adapt heavily to environmental pressures, far moreso than any other race, this puts a powerful variable into the equation that forms any given culture.  Elves act like elves where-ever they find themselves, adapting the enviroment to their needs far more than vice versa. Dwarves have been shaped in many ways by their circumstances, but have retained those traits that made them dwarves in the first place. Remove the underground existance, and Dwarves are still stout and stubborn and highly communal.  

We have yet to even begin discussing the potential role of Gods on the development of a racial culture. Humans have far more Gods than all the other intelligent races combined. While Deific sociology is far beyond the scope of these studies, you can be sure that this factor is important.

The only one done by request....

Quote from: SpikeRetitled from 'The Culture of Diversity'

Can we retitle this one the Culture of Adaptation or the Culture of Adoption and end the confusion?

hehehe...we HOOMANS be a strange and funky bunch!

This is a strange thing to necro.

He Done Discovered the Stickies!

It seems to me that humans react to other races in, genereally, one of two ways: As if they are simple 'different humans', or violent xenophobia due to 'They're different!'.

Which is still exactly the way they treat other humans. The word 'Demi-humans' emphasizes this; focusing both on humanity and less than humanity.

Personally, if I were an elf, or a dwarf, or even a hobbit, I'd find it constantly irritating to undeliberately insulting. "No, I'm not human. I don't need to be human. I'm perfectly fine being an !"

Truth be told, I have not been able to catch up on the RPG forums for some time, not having a puter at home and being unemployed right after a...wierd divorce. I'm just catching up on a lot of these forums so I will probably be necro'ing a lot.

Quote from: Sosthenes;46070Hmm, with the taboo against killing, your humans are clearly the most fantastical of the races

Care to elaborate why only humans don't have a mono-culture (or why the other races do)?

In my cosmology it because of shorter life span and greater numbers coming out of the dawn age.

Shorter life span means more generations per time. My assumption is that cultural drift occurs between the generations so the more you have the greater the change from the original Ur-culture.

Elves in my Majestic Wilderlands are immortal, dwarves live for centuries, as well as Gnomes. Halfling could be as diverse as human but due to historical circumstances they retained a strong association with the other demi-humans.

Another assumption is the impact of Elves on allied cultures. It not a matter of cultural imperialism or any type of Elven tyranny but the mere fact that Elves remember what really happened, at least from their point of view, as opposed what folks think happen. If Jonril the Elf tells you that your great-great-great grandmother liked red not blue like you thought that has an impact.

The result is the cultural drift among cultures allied with the Elves and other demi-cultures is low.

Races that spread out enough to experience isolation in different environment have a wide variety of culture and more. Although there is core set of values that common to 99% of that race's culture.  In my campaign the orcs, goblins, and humans have experienced considerable cultural drift. Although the characteristics of each race has had profound impact on the resulting cultures. Orcs are dominated by agression, Goblins by a combination of a short attention span and obsessive behavior. Humans by their tight knit communities and adaptability.

Quote from: Miacis3101;342509Truth be told, I have not been able to catch up on the RPG forums for some time, not having a puter at home and being unemployed right after a...wierd divorce. I'm just catching up on a lot of these forums so I will probably be necro'ing a lot.

Well, welcome back.