When making a character, it’s useful to add culture to them as it helps set norms, traditions, habits, beliefs and actions.
When using an existing culture, it’s important to read into the culture so you don’t offend anyone.
Especially when an culture is represented in a bad light or with the wrong information, people can take offence of it. As well as extravagantly representing it, the ‘look I’m this culture’ type of characters.
personally, I prefer to create my own cultures based on elements of existing cultures and beliefs but when I do use an existing culture, I try to read about the origin and what they stand for. Things like little routines they do in their daily life.
@RPers, when it comes to culture, what are things that are often done wrong?
what is something that would offend you as an RPer if your culture was being represented?
What do you do when representing a culture that isn’t your own?
I would be wary when doing this because it could potentially commodify bipoc cultures.
I think if youre using aspects of a culture you should give credit and listen to the people of that culture.
Its much better to use the real life culture in its entirety or code characters culture than take cilturally specific aspects for your own personal cultures if u arent of that culture imho
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Oh no its not close enough for any culture to actually be connected to any. Its often just something like the way they believe in a higher power and how they express it.
Its one element, one little thing taken from different cultures.
An example is how in Thailand they told us that depending on who you praise the position of your hands is different.
And in the culture of one of my characters, when they praise a different god, the gesture from the position of the gods’s senses. (eye, ear, mouth, hand, heart).
Its more taking inspiration from it than really just mushing different cultures together.
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Oooh, I understand!! That’s really cool (: I also know they do something similar within Hellenism, they face up or down depending on whether the deity resides in Olympus or the Underworld.
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