Make the most unusual culture you can even imagine.

You mean how like ancient Celtic kings would f**k a horse to please the goddess Epona?

pikachu sorprendido.jpg
 
Wait, did that really happen? I know that was said to be the case for Irish kings, but I thought that was just a Hibernophobic myth.

Last reported horse fracking happened in the 560s. It was considered "traditional" in spite of Christianization.

How about a society where only women can vote but only men can hold office.

How about Indian style kidnapping-adoption starting early in Eurasian pre history being the "norm" rather than slavery. Henry the 8th kidnapping an infant Prince and making him his legal heir for example, would be interesting.
 
If you get even a little evolutionary, human culture can go way off the rails. But that's in the ASB forum by definition (geological, evolutionary etc), I believe, and doesn't matter if it would be realistic.

Hmm, well, what would be OK for non-asb evolution? Different digestive enzymes? Lactose tolerance was crucial for several cattle cultures of independent origin (East African and Eurasian). What else could you do?

What alternate domesticates could make for strange culture? Poor domesticates gave us mass cannibalism in Mesoamerica.

I think what you really need is an alternate base culture system that's good at war. What dominates worldwide is basically patriarchy/patrilinealism because of the stupendous success of the first warlords in the neolithic and chacolithic. Could you get a matriarchal warlord system to scale like they did? What would it look like.
 
Mesoamericans IOTL is already quite unusual in their human sacrifices and cannibalism as major sustenance. If the Europeans never conquered The Aztecs and let them evolve for another 300-400 years, their society could evolve into even more dystopian society coming from the deepest of Nightmares. Mayans are only marginally better, but then, they are already on the decline when the Europeans come.

Not that this justify the brutality of the Spanish conquest themselves, but...

Shang dynasty China also engaged in widespread human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism. If ancient China could abandon these practices, why couldn't Mesoamerica?
 
Wait, did that really happen? I know that was said to be the case for Irish kings, but I thought that was just a Hibernophobic myth.

I'm not 100% sure. I remember hearing it from numerous sources that I trust (don't remember which atm, sorry), but they could easily be misinformed. I would have to look into it more. People did weird stuff, so it wouldn't surprise me if it's true, but [English] people said all sorts of thing about the Irish and bestiality spreads diseases (someone would be bound to notice that a king got sick right after having sex with a mare), so it being false would be even less of a surprise.

I have never heard that it is a myth, but it very well could be. I'm not an expert. Sorry to any Irish people if I offended them.
I have nothing against the Irish, though I would be quite surprised if someone assumed that.
 
Wow, I thought this was going into "weird syncretisms and unlikely cultures" instead of horsefucking.

Anyways... There was a really good idea I liked about Eastern Asian influenced Mesoamerica and Andes. Imagine how the cyclical buddhist/hindu ideals of time would interact with the world ages of Mesoamerican culture, and the "eight million gods" beliefs of Shinto with the Huacas of Andean belief. I'm painting broad strokes here because it could be an infinitely interesting interexchange of culture.

An Australian culture would be pretty interesting too. There's Lands Of Red And Gold (haven't read it yet but it's at the top of my list) but there could be also hybrid Polynesian/ or Indonesian/Australian cultures.
 
Wow, I thought this was going into "weird syncretisms and unlikely cultures" instead of horsefucking.

Anyways... There was a really good idea I liked about Eastern Asian influenced Mesoamerica and Andes. Imagine how the cyclical buddhist/hindu ideals of time would interact with the world ages of Mesoamerican culture, and the "eight million gods" beliefs of Shinto with the Huacas of Andean belief. I'm painting broad strokes here because it could be an infinitely interesting interexchange of culture.

An Australian culture would be pretty interesting too. There's Lands Of Red And Gold (haven't read it yet but it's at the top of my list) but there could be also hybrid Polynesian/ or Indonesian/Australian cultures.

My deepest apologies for that. I just wanted to point out that something like that might have actually existed. I did not mean to turn the thread into that. I actually found the initial idea very interesting, but was too busy to post anything serious at the time (as I am now). I will try to post something constructive here eventually to make up for the horse thing.
 
My deepest apologies for that. I just wanted to point out that something like that might have actually existed. I did not mean to turn the thread into that. I actually found the initial idea very interesting, but was too busy to post anything serious at the time (as I am now). I will try to post something constructive here eventually to make up for the horse thing.

No worries, I just found it odd, more funny than anything else.
 
Mesoamericans IOTL is already quite unusual in their human sacrifices and cannibalism as major sustenance. If the Europeans never conquered The Aztecs and let them evolve for another 300-400 years, their society could evolve into even more dystopian society coming from the deepest of Nightmares. Mayans are only marginally better, but then, they are already on the decline when the Europeans come.

Not that this justify the brutality of the Spanish conquest themselves, but...

Brutality... I suppose you refer to the Black Legend:

* Most of the forces that defeated Aztecs were mesoamericans,
* Most mesoamerican languages had a written grammar before English did,
* The first universities in the Americas date back to the 1530s,
* Mesoamericans were not naturals of a colony, they had the same rights as peninsular Spaniards... after the 1555 controversial, they had even more: child labour war forbidden three centuries before than in France,
* Of course it was impossible to implement the Leyes de Indias, and the crown had a hard time doing it, but Portuguese, French, Dutch, not to mention English colonies did not have anything similar.
 

Dolan

Banned
Brutality... I suppose you refer to the Black Legend:

* Most of the forces that defeated Aztecs were mesoamericans,
Because they were fed up with all the human sacrifices and "Flower Wars" to provide said human sacrifices to Aztecs. While they all have human sacrifices and ritual cannibalism to some extent, the Aztec Nobles and Elite Soldiers actually sustain themselves on regular human meat consumption.

Note that if the other Mesoamericans could overthrow the Aztecs by themselves, they would, but the fact is they can't, and need Cortez and the Conquistadores to provides them with leadership and momentum.

* Most mesoamerican languages had a written grammar before English did,

And your point is?

* The first universities in the Americas date back to the 1530s,

Which was formed by Catholic Monks under Spanish Colonial authority, those are neither successors of the (sp?) Calmecac nor Tlahuezo (both are war-schools for Aztec and Mayan Nobles btw)

* Mesoamericans were not naturals of a colony, they had the same rights as peninsular Spaniards... after the 1555 controversial, they had even more: child labour war forbidden three centuries before than in France,

Those are largely the works of Catholic Church, if anything, to alleviate the devastated and disease-ridden Mesoamerican populations.

* Of course it was impossible to implement the Leyes de Indias, and the crown had a hard time doing it, but Portuguese, French, Dutch, not to mention English colonies did not have anything similar.

The Debate of Valladolid is indeed a debate of morality that would be recognized well beyond their time, and again, those are made by Catholic Clergy for the sake of converting Native Americans under Spanish Rule to Catholicism. You must missed several remarks about treatment of 'Heathens' in the very same system.
 
Honestly anything with head shrinking and cannibalism
Because publicly displaying severed heads left and right and leaving the bodies of hanged criminals dangling from a gibbet and tarred for preservation is fine, but shrinking some severed heads is just way too out there? Goes to show how arbitrary "most unusual culture" can be, especially since lots of people seem to be going for examples of violence without fully understanding just how violent western culture was prior to the present day.
Because they were fed up with all the human sacrifices and "Flower Wars" to provide said human sacrifices to Aztecs. While they all have human sacrifices and ritual cannibalism to some extent, the Aztec Nobles and Elite Soldiers actually sustain themselves on regular human meat consumption.
I'd like to see you present some valid evidence for that mass cannibalism that isn't that controversial and highly dubious "cannibal kingdom" book. Also, Flower Wars were waged against independent states which agreed to them because both sides shared the same religion and would both take captives for sacrifice. The main reason so many people turned on the Aztecs was that the Aztecs were the dominant power and they were not, just like what often happened everywhere else in the world. If the Mongols traveled through time to attack ancient Rome do you not think Rome's enemies and some client states would rally behind the khan?
Which was formed by Catholic Monks under Spanish Colonial authority, those are neither successors of the (sp?) Calmecac nor Tlahuezo (both are war-schools for Aztec and Mayan Nobles btw)
Neither of those is Maya.
 

Dolan

Banned
I'd like to see you present some valid evidence for that mass cannibalism that isn't that controversial and highly dubious "cannibal kingdom" book.
I'd like you to present valid reputation of BOTH the Spanish reports AND The Aztec's and Maya's own Codices about how they sacrifice ten thousands of people regularly and those many human parts-in-pots, alongside the recipes, are just "ritualistic" instead of being parts of Daily Menu. Especially when the codices scenes of cannibalism are drawn near scenes that are recognizably Daily Situations such as children playing, market traders trading, farmers farming, etc, instead of located inside the recognizably mythological/religious parts.

The ball is in your court because of any rational readings of the Codices will show that both Aztec and Mayans are indeed, cultures that have cannibalism so deeply ingrained within their society.
 
I'd like you to present valid reputation of BOTH the Spanish reports AND The Aztec's and Maya's own Codices about how they sacrifice ten thousands of people regularly and those many human parts-in-pots, alongside the recipes, are just "ritualistic" instead of being parts of Daily Menu. Especially when the codices scenes of cannibalism are drawn near scenes that are recognizably Daily Situations such as children playing, market traders trading, farmers farming, etc, instead of located inside the recognizably mythological/religious parts.

The ball is in your court because of any rational readings of the Codices will show that both Aztec and Mayans are indeed, cultures that have cannibalism so deeply ingrained within their society.
Rational reading of the codices? Can you read a codex? Do you even know the content of the few surviving codices? I don't believe Maya codices on astronomical tables are a valid representation of a dinner menu, let alone proof that they cooked up and ate people all the damn time. You made the claim the Aztecs and the Maya ate people on the regular, the burden of proof is on you. Nothing I've read from (translated as I don't speak Mayan) Mayan literature indicated they gobbled people up at all, and claims of Aztec ritual cannibalism are still debated, the idea of it being regular being laughed at. Spanish accounts are hardly unbiased but the less ridiculous ones make no mention of mass cannibalism. Otherwise the people who claim that the natives worshipped white men as gods are not going to be taken as authoritative sources by me.
 

Dolan

Banned
Rational reading of the codices? Can you read a codex? Do you even know the content of the few surviving codices?
Those are pictograms, many pictures there and yes, you could read them as some sort of horror comics of some sort.

They are freely available as PDFs on Many Free Digital Libraries.
 
The Sssh Culture of eastern Zambonia does not permit anyone to speak: if necessary, repeat offenders' tongues are removed. Loud clapping or whistling are permitted as attention-getting devices. All other communication must be done with gestures, facial expressions, or writing (they have more libraries per-capita than any other country). Morse-code news and music are permitted on Radio Sssh. Their most famous citizen is Harpo Marx.
 
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