Reflexive Conethnography

[sangi39]

Inspired to put this topic up as a result of the way the "biggest flaw" thread's been going but also because it seems like an interesting idea to discuss and it seems to have gone down well over on ZBB. Basically, a person from your conworld/culture temporarily appears in the real world in your local area and can experience the way people live, think, act and interact, what they wear, how they talk, the politics, the economics, etc. Upon their return to their world/culture, how would they describe the world they just experienced.

For example, although my conculture isn't developed to the point I'd actually like it to be, one major thing a Teutas individual would pick up on would be the idea of the average person electing leaders straight out of the public domain. Within Teutas culture, although with some variation over the exact process, politic leaders come from a distinct elite caste. A leader may come to power, generally, either through inheritance, election and/or trial. For example, within one region political leaders come from the family of the previous leader but are elected by a council.

They would also probably pick up on the way a person can more or less marry who they want. Within Teutas culture the "choice" or marriage partner is determined by structured rules relating to kinship, clan membership, caste and class. Polygamy is also common amongst the higher caste and the current, seemingly widespread, opposition to homosexuality would probably seem quite odd. In Teutas culture, especially amongst the young elite, what might termed "cultural" or "societal" homosexuality existed, believed to be a method of promoting stronger relationships between future political leaders and amongst military ranks. However, the Teutas did generally oppose outward expressions of homosexuality. That is to say, homosexual activity was meant to be a private affair while men were supposed to show open devotion to their wife and concubines.

The lack of slavery and the widespread lack of servants would also seem somewhat strange. In Teutas culture the ownership of slaves and servants partly indicated social status, alongside land, number of concubines, etc. First generation slaves could only be gained through warfare, thus a slave was a mark of military prowess, a key factor in political allegiances within the Teutas elite. Servants, on the other hand, were native to the local area and were treated more as working house-guests, thus requiring food, clothing, housing and payment. The presence of servants indicated the ability of the individual to support not just his own family but the well-being of others. A secondary view of servantry by extension was that it was a form of charity performed by the wealthy for those in need. Since they could provide others with the means to live, the presence of a servant indicated a kind nature for the members of the clan.

One other feature of Teutas society is the existence of a distinct religious caste and the presence of day-to-day rituals performed by the masses. In the UK it seems the majority of people are religiously apathetic (yet still believing in a single deity which would likewise seem odd to a Teutas individual) and the religious elite are, as with the political elite, drawn from the public domain. Turning up to church on a specific day would also seem odd. In Teutas culture a person performs specific rituals once a day throughout the entire week to specific deities, for example the deity tentatively known as the "Highest Son", would be the universal aim of prayer but different households might pray more specifically to the "Lighting Child" or the the "Fertile Daughter", and they would enter the religious "compound" (in Teutas settlements the religious caste occupies a distinct area rather than having a church here and there) on any day where they require something beyond these basic rituals including divination, marriages, funerals, births, etc.

Finally, from what I have so far, the generally unity of the UK would seem strange to a Teutas individual since, despite holding the idea of shared ethnic origins, the Teutas are divided into highly structures clans, which each have slightly varying traditions, political systems and are the first call of self-identity. In other words, a person is first of their clan, then they are Teutas, then they're of their caste, then their class and finally there age and sex. The fact a woman can "run" a household is also contrary to Teutas cultural practices whereby the day-to-day decisions and assignments of tasks are dealt by the eldest man in the household. Overall, the ideas of unity, free will, choice and social mobility are all ideas generally foreign to Teutas culture which is fractured on the larger scale and highly regulated by cultural traditions.

[Micamo]

An Agyon (Let's call her Ilyaria) would be really shaken by the shorter days; Agyon need 20 hours of sleep per day, but days on Dinyoran are longer. There's no way Illyaria could sleep on anything close to a reasonable schedule.

She also wouldn't understand our court system. The Agyon settle their "cases" with arbitration. The purpose of arbitration is to find a mutual solution that works for everyone. In contrast, our court system is based on figuring out who to blame for what went wrong and how to get back at them for it. And that's, well, kinda silly.

I'll expand this with more things as I think them through, but for now I'll end with this:

Illyaria: Oooh, what's this shiny flashy thing?

*Illyaria taps random keys and brings up a pr0n site*

Illyaria: o//o

[Yačay256]

Let us say we are talking about a Nhginhgeqmba scholar, with the equivalent of a doctorate. Since Mbinhgany, and its alternate Earth, is about as advanced as the contemporary world, with some things less developed and somethings more developed concerning technology, but most things very different culturally and socially, our traveler, let us call him Iqbîkoq ("Decorated", "Wealthy" or "Ornate" in Pinhgyxgo), would be little impressed with our technology, though he would look down on our "barbarian" culture (assuming he is in the USA, where I live).
Our conception of religion would not be too alien to him as Christianity is still widely practiced in Europe (though of the Orthodox sort; Until about a century ago, Europe was the realm of Byzantium, but the Byzantines fell during the War of Wars), though Islam is nonexistent as the Sassanids crushed the Muslim invasions and Persia is still Zoroastrian.
What would probably bother him most, enough for him to call us a barbarian culture, would be our consumerist and capitalist lifestyle, our antiintellectualism and embarce of low culture, our sexism, sexualism and racism (the latter would be completely alien to him). In his home country, there are no homeless people, and thus seeing a homeless person would be shocking and appalling, given that his state guarantees everyone a home and a job. Our economic system would also seem to be bizarre and ridiculously complex.

[LetoAtreides]

Are the Nhginhgeqmba communists ?

For a Nolikan, communism would be plainly idiotic but American-style capitalism wouldn't be very clever too. "Third position" would probably make most sense. As far as religion goes, Islam and Judaism would be most familiar.

On the other hand, the Meljanese would be familiar with nations with restrictions on private property, but he would be surprised that human officials control the destribution of goods - not the shranaks which are the dominant species of Meljan.

[Yačay256]

@ LetroAtreides: The Nhginhgeqmba are not exactly Communists but are quite socialistic, though their state philosophy, Ndyoqheqoqjåqhe ("Great Collective Vehicle") is quite elitist and hierarchal, though more in a meritocratic than aristocratic sense. The Mbinhgany state distributes all property and owns all property, though community operated enterprises play no small part in its economy.
There are other economic systems in different countries in my alternate Earth, such as the more "Arab" socialistic Persians or the social democratic Imperial Chinese or even the quasi-capitalist Cholas.

[Kehgrehdid]

Being an itinerant race, a Fedrelar wouldn't be surprised to see that American culture was different then theirs. But they still would notice the differences.
For example, extramarital sex would be quite foreign to them, due to the fact that their biology is set up such that attempting to reproduce in any way other than monogamously with one member of the opposite gender would be lethal (It involves "body-melding" including a shared bloodstream, and "male" antibodies attack other "male" antibodies, and likewise for "female" antibodies. Technically, the only safe transfusions are between mating partners, or storing one's own blood, like "blood doping.").
Conservative views follow:

Spoiler:

They'd be wistful upon hearing that American families are allowed as many children as they want, since there's a waiting list to be allowed children in order to avoid overpopulation on-board the ship. (Parents can get back on the list as soon as they are done giving birth to a child, but at the back of the line. The rare accidental pregnancy is still celebrated (though there's no birth control, they just have restraint), and others just with a little longer for their monthlong turn in the "Family chambers." The 9-month gestation period would be novel. For them, it takes about two weeks total, during which the male and female bodies are fully melded (except from the neck up), with the child being produced from their biomass as they unmeld. This is usually followed by two more weeks of recovery. Abortion, besides being extremely dangerous to them, would also be unthinkable because of the value they place on family and their limited opportunities to have children.

They'd be curious as to why the US adopted the 17th Amendment (popular election of senators, instead of election from state legislators), since the members of their High Council are elected by the various guild councils. Of pre-17th Amendment USA, Wikipedia says this:

While an unqualified candidate might win a popular-vote majority through demagoguery or superficial qualities, the legislature, which could deliberate on its choice, and whose members had been selected by their constituents and had experience in politics, were thought safe from such folly.

The council system was set up in an attempt to avoid populism, while strict use of term limits try to prevent "good ol' boy" politics. (I came up with this system before I'd ever heard Beck et al. suggesting repeal of the amendment.)
They'd also be surprised that there was any significant unemployment, partly because they're assigned roles basically for life, but even more because their need for efficiency causes them to think that any unused worker would be snapped up by some employer as soon as possible. They'd think Midwestern topography to be pretty bland, since they were used to huge crystal towers. Although they would appreciate fertile soil, they were originally geologists, so they would be more interested in what was under the dirt. They'd be huge fans of BASE jumping, if they could! They'd probably like Colorado most out of the 50 states.
More conservative views below:

Spoiler:

On morality, they wouldn't be surprised to see several mutually exclusive religions, but I admit, I have designed them so they would agree that their deity is just like the Judeo-Christian one. ("Out of the Silent Planet," with its Old Solar, was a spur towards conlanging for me, and I like how CS Lewis created nonhuman sentients that followed the same God, avoiding moral relativism, but specifics varying by species.)

They would certainly notice how primitive our space programs are. Their fusion propulsion is a good deal more advanced than anything we have. Yet they would be interested in the Web, that there is a global information network. They have a distributed computing network as well, but mostly confined to their society-ship and smaller vessels launched from it for trading, combat, etc.
The fact that weather in the same location changes so much in a single "Habitable Zone Year," a unit of time they share would be a shock to them, though they have seen other cases where one planet can have so many biomes to it.

[Veris]

Asdfghjkl.