Make the most unusual culture you can even imagine.

Trying to avoid ASB territory.

An industrial revolution started either in Iceland or the Kingdom of Hawaii (these are where I'm starting, feel free to add other territories) where the thermal vents from Volcanos are are the "waterwheels" providing power.

Until things like coal and oil are exploited, we have superpowers based in in volcano rich areas.

Something Animistic managing to be more universal and hence becoming the dominant form of religious beliefs. Think Universal Shinto.

Basically Italy, Mexico, UPCA (if survives), and half of south america would be industrial powerhouses i would want to see how a surviving GranColombia would do in that scenario
 
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.

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?

Neither of those is Maya.
You do know that most of those heads were from people that they hunted down and killed in war. I understand how brutal the West was in the past, hell there are books made of human hair, skin and blood. I just cannot imagine it happening to me or someone I care about ok?
 
You do know that most of those heads were from people that they hunted down and killed in war. I understand how brutal the West was in the past, hell there are books made of human hair, skin and blood. I just cannot imagine it happening to me or someone I care about ok?
Lots of people took trophy heads, but this is a thread about how to make the most unusual culture and you act like a real culture is super odd or unusual because of a custom that doesn't differ in the main regards much from what the west has done.
 
A culture where the first requirement of eligibility for office is that you must not be a citizen, nor have even ever set foot in the country in which you are running for office. The more cultural ignorance, the better, as a fresh perspective on problems is highly prized. In fact, sometimes people are randomly nominated and win without even being aware that there is an election or that they are a candidate. Governing/legislating in absentia is allowed if the elected representative does not feel like moving to the country in question (assuming they agree to accept the position, although it's also possible that ignoring emails, phone calls, etc, might be seen as tacit approval - i.e. "We've tried to contact him several times asking if we should ban all firearms and he hasn't responded so ... he didn't say 'no' ... we'll just assume he votes 'yes'.")

EDIT: Aaaaand - at birth you are assigned one of the 7 colors of the "Roy G Biv" spectrum according to a random algorithm. That plus your Chinese zodiac animal are the political party you belong to (Green Rooster Party, Yellow Monkey Party, etc.). You can never change it. However, the party policies are constantly changing as new, random individuals come of age. Every year, there is a convention for each group, and they have to decide on which policies to pursue for the coming year (and then, of course, you have to try and find candidates who you feel will support those policies, according to the rules above). Of course, the parties are on the small side, so the only way to get anything done is to form a coalition with several other parties.
 
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A culture where the first requirement of eligibility for office is that you must not be a citizen, nor have even ever set foot in the country in which you are running for office. The more cultural ignorance, the better, as a fresh perspective on problems is highly prized. In fact, sometimes people are randomly nominated and win without even being aware that there is an election or that they are a candidate. Governing/legislating in absentia is allowed if the elected representative does not feel like moving to the country in question (assuming they agree to accept the position, although it's also possible that ignoring emails, phone calls, etc, might be seen as tacit approval - i.e. "We've tried to contact him several times asking if we should ban all firearms and he hasn't responded so ... he didn't say 'no' ... we'll just assume he votes 'yes'.")
Maybe something like sortition (completely random selection from the citizen population) for choosing political leaders, while all military leaders have to choose a nom de guerre and adopt a new fabricated identity.
 

Dolan

Banned
@9 Fanged Hummingbird
Have asked my professor about it, and referred to his Mesoamerican Historian colleague (as I studied Physics, mind you).

Well, said historian did say that regular (as opposed to ritual-based) human meat consumption amongst the Aztecs was limited only to the priestly class, as commoners are much more likely to eat a mostly pescetarian or vegetarian diet with fowl being irregular supplements, while nobles will supplement their diets with game meats and dogs much more frequently. But they do eat human meat as part of their ritual sacrifices.

So yeah, regular human meat consumption is pretty much limited to Priestly class. While cannibalism did occur, it wasn't that widespread.
 
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.
So... most of mesoamericans did not perceive the Spaniards as the real danger, but the Aztecs.



And your point is?
The Spaniards did not destroy those languages, they gave them a written form, compiled grammars (before the Englishmen did). The clergy sent to the Americas had to learn some of those languages.
They were not dismissed until the former Spanish Viceroyalties became independent!!!


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)





Those are largely the works of Catholic Church, if anything, to alleviate the devastated and disease-ridden Mesoamerican populations.
No, the Leyes de Indias was the work of the Spanish Crown.

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.

I do not understand this one. If you read the lectios of Francisco de Vitoria you will see that forced conversion is considered inmoral and that force should be used only in case of cannibalism or of attacks over christened populations.
 
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