Organizers
Excel:
Scrivener:
https://www.lumpsumsaga.com/downloads/Cultural_Universals.zip
About the Cultural Universals
What jobs, if any, would a race of sentient, omnivorous kangaroo rats have? What games would their children play? These are just a couple of the questions I am grappling with as I world-build for the alien world of The Lump Sum Saga. I’m neck-deep in that process right now, so I thought I’d bring you along for the ride.
When I was teaching, we used to do a unit where the students created their own countries. To help them organize their thoughts, I introduced the notion of cultural universals. While there is academic debate about how applicable these are in the real world, from a writing perspective they provide a great lens. In oversimplified terms, cultural universals are elements of culture that are found in all societies, regardless of time and place. They include basic needs and behaviors that are necessary for survival and reproduction, as well as aspects of culture that are common across different societies.
Some cultural universals I like to consider include:
• Art
• Clothing
• Communications
• Economics
• Education
• Family
• Food
• Government
• Housing
• Medicine
• Music
• Recreation
• Religion
• Superstitions
• Tools
• Traditions
• Transportation
While cultural universals are common across almost all societies, the specific forms they take vary widely. This makes this framework a fabulous playground for writers thinking about how the societies in their books function.
I look forward to sharing more about each category as I think about them for TLSS.