One of the things that bugs me about many Sci-Fi Universes is the way that alien races tend to exhibit (by and large) one set of traits. While not wholly one-dimensional these cultures tend to have one dominant outlook which (surprise surprise) humans do not.
I tend to think of this as more a case of saving time rather than a lack of planning or skill on the part of the writers. Creating multiple subcultures on the order we Terrans tend to bifrucate for each race requires writing orders of magnitude larger than the story itself will call for. Yet, when writers spend time focussing on an alien race we see more and more examples of character outside the established norm and greater and greater detail imparted onto it (Enterprise did this fairly well thanks to its use of established Trek backstory)
However. The thing which still bugs me however is the monocultural nature of most alien races. I'm no sociologist, and I am shooting from the hip here, but it seems to me that with the existence of multiple languages and different societies within a species (or even two or more species sharing the same planet) Monocultures would be the exception and not the rule. A single shared worldview, requires a massive level of interconnectedness between all points of the civilisation, linguistically, culturally, and physically. Certainly these things are enabled by a technologically advanced society (universal translation, universal media, rapid travel).
But culture itself is a self-preserving phenomenon, as much as individuals want to survive, the systems they build are just as capable of perpetuating themselves against the demand for uniformity.
Monocultures would seem to me to be more likely in instances where civilisation began in a small region, on worlds with one major continent, or a world that was united through some form of conquest (not necessarily military: e.g. Vulcan) and these may turn out to be far less common than the circumstances which allow for multicultral civilisations.
Thoughts? |
