Re: Monoculture Aliens, etc.

In message <3.0.3.32.19970912112548.00989af0@rincewind.sar.bolton.ac.uk>
Deeply in Love with Dot writes:

> Take the minbari for
> example (since I don't know too much about trek cultures). They are
split
> into 3 castes, warrior, worker and religous. 

This three-way split in the Minbari isn't exactly novel, and is
seen quite often in ancient cultures. There's one lot to do all 
the work, one lot that skives off by doing ritual stuff, and
another lot to skive off by being the (core of) the military.

The caste system in India is similar, although there's (IIRC) a
merchant caste as well. I guess the Minbari are another utopian
society that's evolved beyond money and trade and so on...

> This happened when Valen
> appeared 1000 years ago, apparently dramatically enough to become all
> prevading very quickly. Each caste is a very different culture from
the
> others - the Warrior caste are (surprisingly enough) very aggressive
and
> seem to have a very fluid hierachy of families, while the religous are
much
> less caring about family and more the caste as a whole. 

I don't know if I'd call that really multi-cultural. It all seems
too symboitic. They all speak the same language don't they?

> So, In essence, I think if you look at the details for those races
that
> have them, few are truly monocultural. An ordered culture, which I
think is
> a prerequisite of a race with very high technology (note : that
doesn't
> mean a peaceful one), might appear monocultural at first glance but on
> further examination turns out not to be. 

I don't know that I'd really agree with this at all. The most
ordered cultures historically, as best as I can tell, were the 
most static cultures. Fuedal Japan stands as a good example. To
protect it's orderly nature it closed itself off completely from
all external influence for a few centuries. An orderly culture
would not seem to me to have any particular need for new 
technologies. 

I suppose this is a horrendously Euro-(Amero-)centric position to 
take.

I suppose the Minbari are a bit better than the Klingons. Don't 
you ever wonder who, in a culture entirely made up of War-yaws,
does all the really hard work?

-- 
David Brewer