Pre-Class Rules: Please do not post until you see the word QUESTIONS posted. Please don't chat during class. Please stop posting question when you see CLASS.
There is a lot of material to cover, although some sections are shorter than others. I will be very happy to answer any questions later if I miss them here.
The size of print in this chat is small, and I have trouble reading it. I may misunderstand a question. If so, ask again or ask later.
I will cut and paste a number of blocks, one after another, and then post QUESTIONS. At that point I'll stop while everyone reads what's been posted and asks any questions.
And now the class!
Welcome to Lee Killough's Checking on Culture -- A checklist for Cultural Building. This is the primary book I've used for this class. Definitions come from the Random House Webster's College Dictionary.
I also used various other books in my house to check some of the items, while other parts are called up from memory. I hope that some or all of it will help you develop interesting backgrounds for your manuscripts.
Lee Killough has several books available from Meisha Merlin Press: Blood Walk and Blood Games, Bridling Chaos, and the upcoming Wilding Nights. You can find more information on these books here: http://www.meishamerlin.com
You can also learn more about Lee Killough and contact her through her AuthorsDen website at: http://www.authorsden.com/leekillough
Introduction
Culture may be defined as behavior peculiar to Homo Sapiens, together with material objects used as an integral part of this behavior; specifically culture consists of language, ideas, beliefs, customs, codes, institutions, tools,
techniques, works of art, rituals, ceremonies and so on. -- Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 16, page 874 (15th edition, copyright 2002)
I often read books on Cultural and Physical Anthropology for fun. Mead, Pfeiffer, Braidwood, Clark, Bronowski, Johanson, Wormington and may others. If it looks in the least bit interesting, I'll pick it up and read it.
However, it wasn't until I happened upon Lee Killough's little 53 page booklet that I finally found a way to easily put it all together.
Lee's book lists the terms out alphabetically. For this class, I've rearranged them into groups that I think will make it easier to manipulate for our purposes. I have also not used all of her terms, nor copied all the material she had for each term.
I have even combined a few for easier handling in the class, and added one or two that I think should be looked at as well.
Lee Killough's book, Checking on Culture, is available. Anyone who wishes to can order this little gem by sending $5.00 plus $3.00 for postage and postage materials:
Lee Killough/PO Box 1167/Manhattan KS 66505-1167 (Be sure to tell her it is for Checking on Culture.)
The Class -- These sections are a bare introduction to the subjects covered, and you may want to go on and do more research to fit a pattern of culture to your work.
There are many books out there on cultural and physical anthropology, some of them overall views and some specific to a culture. Check your library or book store if find something that catches your attention.
You can also ask me for suggestions. I have several books on the subjects, but many of them may be difficult to find.
The class will follow a set pattern. First will be a short description of the overall grouping, followed by sub-sections, each numbered and named. The sections are further divided:
Term -- Definition from dictionary -- Part of Lee Killough's explanation from the booklet (Killough) -- My additions (Zette) -- Question period. Once again the rules -- Please do not ask any questions until you see QUESTIONS or after you see CLASS.
QUESTIONS
@zette -- Everyone doing all right? Remember, this stuff will be in the transcript, too.
Robert -- Does her book focus mostly on research of existing cultures or is it a series of questions for world building?
@zette -- It is a list of things to look for when you world build. Just a checklist, with material added on how she has used it or what she found helpful.
Robert -- Is there an encyclopedic sort of anthropology site that you'd recommend for the "I need a Pueblo side character who's onstage for three lines before he dies to be plausible" questions.
@zette -- I don't know of any right off hand, Robert.
@zette -- I tend to go to my books rather than the web in these cases, because I have a large personal library.
@zette -- Okay, I'm going to move on... We're heading into the real stuff now!
CLASS
Part One: Integrating with the environment
While this section may seem best suited to sf and fantasy writers creating alien and magical beings from scratch, I think people with basic humanoid populations will find items of interest here.
Consider how your people got where they are. Are they indigenous? Did they migrate into the area? If they are new to the environment, what practices did they bring with them?
Also, the more primitive the society, the closer it will be to it's origins.
1. Habitat
Definition: The natural environment of an organism; place that is natural for the life and growth.
Killough: The primal influence on any life form is habitat. Even before it influences culture, it shapes the very anatomy of the beings in that culture. People on a cold world must withstand low temperatures. So they may evolve fur, or perhaps a subcutaneous layer of blubber as our seals and whales do.
An aquatic planet produces swimmers. The buoyancy of biological forms in water might also make the seas the home of intelligent life on a heavy gravity world.
Habitat affects the design of housing and clothing, also food gathering or food production, domestic animals and cooking... And what about sociability?
Start by placing your people in the environment in which they exist and suit them to it.
Not only look at their ethnic structure, but also how the area influences how they think. People in equatorial areas are used to napping (siesta) in the afternoons because the heat is oppressive.
It becomes part of their cultural background, and not easily abandoned, especially when a large group migrates together to another area.
Zette: All the items of an ecological system must be taken into account when creating a culture, from the climate to the available resources. This is as true for humans as for alien or fantasy races. People living in deserts are not likely to have 'paper' though they may have parchment.
They are more likely to know the layout of the night sky and use it for navigation, while a mountain people -- where clouds and rough weather might block the stars too often -- are more likely to use terrestrial landmarks for navigation, like the peaks of mountains, or even odd trees and rock formations.
Large impassable blocks will help to create ethnic differences, both in looks and in culture. Points of transition will be along trading routes and places where one culture outstrips another and is able to overcome the barrier -- i.e., ships that cross oceans, transportation across deserts and mountains.
For example, consider a grasslands environment: Would this produce fast runners because a lack of cover would be difficult for prey to reach safety? Perhaps a creature that could burrow would have an advantage in such a place.
Herds and packs might well have advantages over individuals. How would an environment like this affect the creation of an intelligent being?
Special problems for new worlds: What special environments that are not 'earth-norm' would an sf writer need to consider? For instance, if the world doesn't have an oxygen atmosphere, what sort of senses would your beings evolve?
Stronger gravity produces denser material. Also, a people living on a heavy gravity world would have short, squat bodies, while those on a low gravity world are likely to grow tall and willowy.
Does your new race have any sign of Sexual dimorphism? Do the sexes differ from one another in some particular way? Are there only two sexes? Is there only one?
QUESTIONS
danielle -- Weather patterns may also play a part in how other cultures stereotype a culture - e.g. They sleep during the day, so they're lazy
CiceroCat -- so, environment would also determine how fast a civilization might advance (technology)?
@zette -- No culture can be lazy. They would have to work as hard at night to survive if they slept all day. Otherwise they would just die out.
@zette -- Environment will give them all the tools they can use, so a poor environment will slow down technology.
Robert -- Climate might affect that though. Some climates like tropical islands, the amount of effort survival needs take is a lot lower than say Alaska
danielle -- But stereotypes ignore the reasons for things and read the behaviour in terms of their own (limited) understanding
Robert -- Right, I see what you're saying about the siesta custom, Danielle.
@zette -- Yes, but that is not being lazy. Islanders work very hard to get what they need. I can suggest a couple books for that. It's not an easy life, just because it looks plentiful on the outside.
@zette -- Oh yes, for stereotypes as viewed by outsiders... very true.
@zette -- I hadn't quite caught all of that on the first reading!
danielle -- what might people in a highly forested area use to navigate?
DragonDancer -- rivers, I would think
@zette -- Paths, mostly. Marks on trees. A very tall tree that was hit by lightning. Anything that can indicate a direction to go.
Anon_19 -- If a race migrated from a shore to a plains/forest area, what types of customs do you think would stick around for a while?
Robert -- Up in Minnesota some long distance Native American trail marks are still visible - pairs of trees bent at right angles as saplings pointing in the direction of the trail.
@zette -- Also, from all I've seen, people who live in very dense jungles usually have very little contact outside of their area, so they KNOW the jungle they way we know streets.
@zette -- That would be a very drastic change, Anon. (You can type your name in the name box at the top right corner, by the way). I would think they would bring their fishing culture, which they could adapt to lakes and streams.
@zette -- Boating as well, which might give them an advantage over some other local peoples.
Kevin -- thanks 
@zette -- But I would think they would have to adapt more than they brought.
@zette -- The same crops wouldn't likely grow, if they were that far into settlement.
@zette -- Okay, I'm going to move on here!
@zette -- Oh, one last thing for Kevin -- it would also depend on how far they moved. If it were an adjacent area, they'd likely know a lot about it already. Shore dwellers often hunted in mountains, etc.
CLASS
2. Anatomy
Definition: The structure of an animal or plant, or any of its parts
Killough: ... but if aliens or non-human fantasy beings have roles, this category becomes important. Anatomy, too, profoundly affects society. Imagine a group of aliens... one-centaur-like, one dolphin-like, one furred, one winged, one humanoid with a thumb on each side of his hands.
Now thing of each in relation to architectures, to clothing and jewelry, furniture, tools, transportation, sex, sports and grooming...
Well...that extra thumb affects anything they grasp. We encircle a doorknob with the fingers and thumb. Mr. Two Thumbs is more likely to spread-eagle his fingers and thumbs across a broad knob, or he might use a bar handle, grasping it as a bird does a perch...
How a being grips determines handle shapes. Grip also determines which weapons can be used and how.
Extra limbs present a particular challenge. Where and how do they attach?
Zette: Anatomy is part of habitat. Creatures evolve to meet the requirements of their world.
Evolution favors a form best suited to the environment. In other words, the reason why Amazonian natives are usually shorter than Europeans may be because that form is better suited to life in the a jungle environment where tree branches are low over head.
Tall may seem like a good choice -- easier to get things from the trees -- but in fact, it would make it harder to travel (constant ducking or cutting through things) and would also put the head even with at a level with dangerous predators.
In such a case, the people with the 'tall' gene in their makeup are the ones likely to die off without having a chance to pass the gene on.
Humans are non-adaptive to specific ecological niches. While they may, as a race, evolve to fit a certain ecological system, they are not irretrievably tied to it.
Humans are the only creatures on this world that can move out of one niche and to another, because they remake their environment to suit them: They Build their own housing and they Grow their own food.
Once a being takes control of their environment they are no longer limited by it, and a disaster in one ecological niche means simply moving to another one. This is how humans have survived both ice ages and the current age of plenty.
QUESTIONS
@zette -- Are you all hanging in there all right?
karenth -- yup!
CiceroCat -- Yuppers
DragonDancer -- aye
Robert -- Some of those races wouldn't have much reason to develop much physical tech - the dolphin types.
CiceroCat -- lol
Yvonne -- we're hanging on your every word
Kevin -- very interesting stuff
@zette -- Good!
CiceroCat -- very interesting
@zette -- No I wouldn't think so either, Robert. But that was Lee's example. It would be fun to figure out what they would do, though.
CiceroCat -- fodder for the imagination
JimMills -- Sorry I'm late, Z... I'll have to catch the transcript to see what I missed.
Robert -- If they were mermaids with opposable thumbs and a human tendency to build things, their applications might be very different.
@zette -- GREAT! That's what this is supposed to do, CiceroCat.
CiceroCat --
@zette -- Jim... only one rule, don't post until you see the QUESTIONS and stop when you see CLASS.
@zette -- And there will be a transcript.
JimMills -- ok. np.
CiceroCat -- if you had a flying race (of humans), they couldn't do much in the way of weapons, could they?
Robert -- Like, I'm thinking about long distance sonar and acoustic communication and sentient elaboration. They might build structures that combined acoustics and esthetics as landmarks.
karenth -- nice, Robert!
CiceroCat -- ah, different emphasis on what they develop, Robert?
JimMills -- Sure they could, CC... light weight, but with high speed fly-by's.
danielle -- depends how flexible the flying humans' feet were!
@zette -- I would think they would develop projectiles to drop, CC. And nice Robert!
Robert -- Yeah. Their needs are different but if they're that intelligent they'll elaborate on anything they do.
DragonDancer -- if your flying race developed more dexterous feet, they could (like birds, kinda)
CiceroCat -- i was considering, like a chakram thingy--would that be implausible?
CiceroCat -- haven't considered that dragon
Robert -- Archery and sniping. Chakrams. Weapons designed to grip well and fling projectiles.
JimMills -- or a weight on the end of a rope...
@zette -- All good stuff!
CiceroCat -- dropping projectiles, never considered that either--and i guess nets
Robert -- Nets, snares and claw boots or bladed boots for falcon stooping.
DragonDancer -- think horseback type weapons, like javelins, too
danielle -- not to mention voice weapons
CiceroCat -- k
CiceroCat -- voice?
DragonDancer -- banshees?
danielle -- I don't know, some kind of sonic attack?
CiceroCat -- ah!
Yvonne -- the weirding way?
CiceroCat --
@zette -- I'm going on now. There are about 50 sections to cover, and we've only done two. This gives me an idea of how many classes we'll have, though. (grin)
CLASS
3. Hygiene
Definition: a condition or practice conducive to the preservation of health, as cleanliness
Killough: How do your people bathe? In water? Or do they, say, scrub their skins clean with sand or work something powdery into their fur or feathers and brush/comb it out as a dry shampoo? How often do they bathe?
What customs surround bating? What implements do they use? Is it a private or communal activity?
What kind of plumbing do your people enjoy? Hot and cold running water? Wells? What about toilet facilities? ... Do your people clean themselves afterwards? With paper...leaves...sponges... water jet?
What about hand washing afterward? Do they have customs and taboos concerning hygiene? Do they, like in the Middle East, reserve one hand for that function so they never clean and eat with the same hand...
Zette: Hygiene is dependent on the world around them -- linked very closely to habitat. The Romans, along with their famous baths, rubbed olive oil into their skin and scrapped it off with razor like instruments.
Indoor plumbing is not an entirely new invention. The Romans, among others, had extensive water systems, and -- of course -- brought large amounts of water to their cities via their aqueducts.
However, work of that type takes a large concentration of people, not only to do the construction, but also to support those who do the work. Make sure that your culture can support it.
The Greeks, although they also had balaneion (baths), didn't appear to use them as social gathering places as the Romans later did.
Perfumes might also be considered part of hygiene. Would scents signify wealth?
QUESTIONS
@zette -- (Nice short section!)
CiceroCat --
Robert -- Ranging into the alien weird... the vulture people of planet disgusting a actually adapted to eating carrion and they don't have much of what humans would consider hygiene.
Robert -- But the more intense and frightening their odors the higher status they are, it keeps local carnivores off 'em.
CiceroCat -- sounds neat, Robert
DragonDancer -- cool
karenth -- they'd probably see bathing as pretty foolhardy, yeah?
@zette -- Sounds like you're creating a 'winged' world.
Robert -- Shameful actually, makes the person smell like a food animal.
Kevin -- don't think I'd want to live there 
CiceroCat -- another bird q real quick--do birds actually get in water a lot? or rarely?
Robert -- Right, see how well it keeps off conquering other sentients?
CiceroCat -- you know to clean themselves?
Robert -- The ones in the birdbath outside my house as a kid often did.
CiceroCat -- lol i wonder how their sense of smell deals with it --although, people/creatures adept
karenth -- some birds do the birdbath thing. Or a nice puddle.
@zette -- Birds around here love any pond of water in the street. There's usually a flock of them splashing around in them in the summer and spring.
Robert -- Birds also groom and preen.
danielle -- some birds bathe in dust - no, wait, that's for scratching itches
CiceroCat -- and they don't get bogged down with so much water to not fly away?
CiceroCat -- ah dust baths.. interesting... =)
Yvonne -- some birds bathe in ants, to get rid of parasites
@zette -- It's a problem in the fall. Them sometimes get their feet frozen in the water. We've rescued a few.
karenth -- oh!
karenth -- poor birds.
CiceroCat -- ants! lol, covered in ants wouldn't be much fun, i guess, according to us... oh, yeah! poor birds... glad u had no cats around
Robert -- In "Raptor Red" was a wonderful chapter where the heroine had parasites and laid down to let tickbirds tend her.
@zette -- It's why most birds migrate... but we do get early and late storms sometimes.
CiceroCat -- ooh the dinosaur book!
danielle -- coating of the skin might have something to do with what you could bathe in (oily protective covering, like dogs or ducks?)
CiceroCat -- ah
CiceroCat -- k
Robert -- Some sentient reptilords might tame and breed tickbirds and the tickbird fanciers are related to soap and perfumers and part of same culture.
Yvonne -- mud is great protection too
CiceroCat -- neat idea Robert... breading tickbirds for yourself
Robert -- Mud's great and one thing I've toyed with is a bunch of sentient elephant types.
@zette -- Okay, moving on!
CLASS
4. Clothing (including jewelry and cosmetics)
Definition: (Clothing) garments collectively; clothes; raiment; apparel.
Killough: Anatomy and habitat influence clothing. Bundling in layers of clothing without waterproof boots and a fur parking on the outside keeps Eskimos warm in an Arctic climate.
In the desert, the Bedouins' long robes hang loose from the shoulders, not only affording protection from the sun, but cooling by allowing air to circulate up along the body...
Clothing varies with working needs, too. Someone in a sedentary job can afford to dress in more elaborate and restrictive clothing than someone who must climb on or squeeze between machinery...
Clothing distinguishes between professions --- police, soldiers, chefs --- and religious groups --- Hasidic Jews, Muslims.... remember footgear. If your aliens have feet, even those who wear no clothing may need foot protection...
Zette: Decide on the types of materials that are available to your culture. Wool needs sheep, grazing lands, people to sheer, process and weave. Nomadic cultures manage this, especially if their movement revolves around grazing land.
However, fabrics like cotton take farmlands. This is a cloth of a sedentary population, as well as one living in the proper climate for cotton growth. Any type of cloth may be exported, bartered and traded -- but remember that such trade goes two ways.
Look into the manufacture of cloth and decide if your culture can support it. Is it woven at home? If not, who makes the cloth and the clothing?
Do they use hides instead? Hides also take a lot of work to make them into clothing. In Eskimo cultures, the women often have to chew the hides to make them useable.
Also, the more complex the society, the more often clothing is differentiated between male and female, as well as by age groups and different classes. And are there special types of clothing worn at various times of life -- baptism, first hunt, or a presentation to the king, marriage?
What about jewelry? What sort of items and how are they worn? What do they signify? Do weapons sometimes form part of the jewelry that they wear, and if so are they just symbolic or is the person expected to know how to use them?
Cosmetics can also be considered part of clothing. Who wears cosmetics and when? Is it a sign of rank or power? Do they paint power symbols on their faces? Do they blacken their teeth as a sign of beauty? Do they use tattoos as magical emblems? Male? Female?
QUESTIONS
karenth -- "where are all the mylar jumpsuits?"
danielle -- this is great stuff!
Robert -- Thanks for mentioning the tattoos!
karenth -- : )
Yvonne -- don't forget scarring
@zette -- LOL, Mylar jumpsuits.
Robert -- Decoration is something that would start to apply even if races didn't wear protective clothing. Yeah, scarring too.
@zette -- True, too, Yvonne.
Robert -- Dyeing hair, fur or feathers.
DragonDancer -- any idea as to what's easier to grow: wool, flax, or cotton?
Yvonne -- body piercing, lip plates
Robert -- Or silk, silk is in there too. All are pretty labor intensive.
danielle -- Colour of clothing as means of communicating social messages
Yvonne -- cotton is highly labor intensive
CiceroCat -- didn't Egyptians use eyepaint for protection of the eyes?
@zette -- Wool. It feeds itself, grazes, just need to trim and make into cloth... but that's not entirely easy.
Robert -- Yes. I think wool with that annual shearing and then all the work processing it might be a bit easier.
@zette -- Eyepaint was mostly a high society thing, I believe.
DragonDancer -- thank you!
CiceroCat -- hey and then if they wanted to they could eat em
Robert -- And then I have to ask: do they know how to weave, knit, knot, crochet or felt it? How do they make cloth?
Kevin -- something else that exists is the elongation or deformation of body parts like ears, necks, feet..
Yvonne -- or other animal hair, alpaca, vicuna
CiceroCat -- ah thnx zette
Yvonne -- goat hair
@zette -- They did eat the sheep. Older animals, most often, didn't go back to the fields after sheering.
Robert -- In Ziriavan they raise catswool because it's very soft and fine and a Persian type can produce a lot of it.
CiceroCat -- cat?
Robert -- Cat. To me it's an accident of history that very fluffy longhair breeds were developed long after most of the animal fiber stuff got invented.
CiceroCat -- neat
DragonDancer -- wow, never thought of those types of animals as cloth-producers
Robert -- That and pure white fur would take dyes so beautifully.
Yvonne -- angora rabbit
karenth -- there's a book out there called knitting with dog hair.
Robert -- Yeah! I think they do spin angora rabbit hair.
CiceroCat -- lol, cool karenth
@zette -- The next two sections are pretty short. Let's get through them for this class, and then see we can discuss it all for a few minutes.
Robert -- Knitting was invented late in history but it's actually a very efficient way to turn yarn into clothes, fast.
CLASS
5. Modesty
Definition: (Modest) Having or showing regard for the decencies of behavior, speech, dress, etc.
Killough: What do your people believe constitutes modesty? Some societies here on earth disapprove of nudity. Others think nothing of it. Not long ago, our culture considered a bare female ankle scandalously provocative...
Zette: Modesty is based both in the cultural background as well as habitat, and often has a religious basis as well. Nakedness was seldom considered immodest in Pacific Island communities until the introduction of Christianity.
Modesty is also considered different at various age levels, as well as different for each gender. A toddler running naked from a house with the parents chasing her will win laughter. A teen doing the same will get calls to the police.
Hair -- an interesting turn of the century Western civilization custom for females was that when they came of age their hair went up and their hems came down.
Courting behavior is often rife with layers of modesty, and in fact is sometimes used by perspective in-laws as a judgment of suitability of the candidate, either male or female.
While boasting may be considered immodest in most societies, it could, in fact be part of courtship in others, or part of acceptance into a section of the community.
QUESTIONS
CiceroCat -- do you know why the ankle was considered scandalous?
Robert -- I want to do a culture sometime that has that elaborate a set of modesty customs about food, where eating isn't social.
Yvonne -- how often is modesty tied to sex?
DragonDancer -- ankle-- because women were to be all covered save for face and hands
danielle -- I think the ankle led to the leg, which was unmentionable
CiceroCat -- ah
danielle -- they used to dress the legs of tables?
karenth -- imagine a society where men had to wear a covering (sheer enough for them to see, but only just) because their gaze was dangerous and provocative...
CiceroCat -- that's neat Robert
Robert -- Everyone covers their mouths and lower face, because that's disgusting.
CiceroCat -- cool, karenth -- you mean like a head covering?
@zette -- The ankle was considered scandalous for the same reason that an uncovered face is considered so in another society -- it is the rules they made. They don't have to be logical by our standards, but they should be consistent with your story.
DragonDancer -- would kissing in that culture be likewise taboo, Robert?
danielle -- who would prepare food, Robert?
karenth -- something like that cc
Robert -- Kissing would be sexual perversion in that society.
CiceroCat -- would talking about food be bad, then Robert, your society?
Robert -- Yep. Talking about food would range from naughty to extremely disgusting-rude.
JimMills -- any public show of emotion towards a female was taboo in Roman society... they considered it disgusting.
CiceroCat -- maybe not all societies kiss on the mouths as a display of affection...
@zette -- Robert, yours seems to follow as much into Taboo areas as modesty, but it works out the same.
danielle -- Maori touch noses rather than kiss mouths
Robert -- I'm extrapolating it to look at the roots of modesty taboos, the cultures that cover up most also will say sex and sexuality is evil and dangerous even in its rare permitted forms.
@zette -- One more section and we'll call it a night!
CiceroCat -- maybe they'd wear something over their mouths, like a veil, even Robert cause it was like being naked
Robert -- Handholding would be sensual and romantic. Right, mouth veils.
CLASS
6. Etiquette
Definition: 1 conventional requirements as to proper social behavior, 2 a prescribed code of usage in matters of ceremony; court etiquette
Killough: What do your people consider good manners? ...Among some African tribes, good manners include the host offer a guest his wife for the night. In Arab countries care must be taken in paying compliments.
A statement like, "oh what beautiful earrings!" or even, "What a wonderful house!" may be answered not by a polite thank you as in our culture, but by the recipient of the compliment insisting the complimenter take the earrings or the house as a gift.
With how much formality or courtesy do your people address one another? How fast do they 'cut to the chase' in a conversation? How do they say 'no.' Some languages have no direct way of saying 'no'; it must be approached obliquely...
In crowded conditions as in the orient or the close quarters of a colony ship, manners can be vitally important to reduce social friction.
Zette: The prescribed forms of behavior between one group and another can lead to all kinds of trouble. Someone who doesn't know the rules can be laughed at -- or, if the system is extremely rigid, a break in etiquette could lead to far wider repercussions, including exile or war.
Etiquette is often different when dealing with someone from another age group, especially a younger member to an older member. For SF stories a good form of friction can relate to etiquette and modesty rules.
QUESTIONS
Robert -- Etiquette is a wonderful source of conflict! There are other divisions that could apply. People from the Raven moiety never use certain words and Dog moiety always do and Raven saying it is stealing something.
CiceroCat -- who would set etiquette rules? just a general agreement of people?
@zette -- They evolve with the culture, and are usually ways of setting one group apart from the other. peasants from rulers, for instance.
CiceroCat -- especially if the consequences of being rude are severe, Robert
Robert -- Yep.
danielle -- a lot of the etiquette in our culture are a legacy of a class-conscious history
CiceroCat -- ah, so maybe the best etiquette would be seen in royalty and nobility?
@zette -- A desert group, for instance, might have a rule of etiquette that says never drink first from the canteen, but pass it to another. Never gulp.
Robert -- The peasantry may be more sticklers for it than some of them.
karenth -- the best?
Robert -- Oooh nice, Zette!
CiceroCat -- neat one, zette
@zette -- The strongest RULES of etiquette would be there.
CiceroCat -- maybe spitting would be a very bad thing in a desert group--wasting water
CiceroCat -- ah
@zette -- In a royal group, because they are the most concerned with their ranks and being treated properly.
Robert -- Or like in Dune, it's a sign of respect.
CiceroCat --
@zette -- Ah, 9PM. How'd it go?
CiceroCat -- lol, i can't think of what etiquette would be for my flying humans... don't scatter your bird seed on the floor? *snicker*
danielle -- great! thought provoking
Robert -- It was great, Zette! Full of ideas!
karenth -- really interesting!
Kevin -- it was excellent!
Robert -- CC - Pecking Order, literally.
DragonDancer -- wonderful! Got some excellent ideas
danielle -- lol robert
CiceroCat -- i liked it very informative --it's things like this especially the examples that really stokes my muse
CiceroCat -- lol robert
karenth -- lol
@zette -- I had a hard time deciding how to present the material, but I think this worked pretty well.
Robert -- Definitely, Zette!
Kevin -- indeed
DragonDancer -- ::claps:: good job, Zette!
CiceroCat -- i think you did very well
danielle -- there are 50 in total? cool!
CiceroCat -- thanks for doing this
Robert -- Thanks for a great class!
karenth -- yes, thanks zette!
danielle -- thanks zette!
DragonDancer -- thank you!
@zette -- This is just to get you going and looking at these sections. You will all come up with a lot more that I didn't even consider.
CiceroCat -- what number are we on? 4? 5?
@zette -- I think there might be a few more than 50, but some of them are short. We just did #6, but we had a long intro as well.
CiceroCat -- 6 k
CiceroCat --
CiceroCat -- i'm gonna enjoy these classes/chats
@zette -- We've another nine sections to the end of the first part. We might be able to get that far next week since some of it is short.
CiceroCat -- cool
Robert -- Really looking forward to it!
karenth -- sounds good
DragonDancer -- awesome. can't wait!
@zette -- I'll post the transcript in a little while for this one.
Show me a writer who isn't totally obsessed, and I'll show you a hobbyist. -- S.L. Viehl
