On Blending Cultures

So have you ever read a book, watched a movie, or played a game that had something obvious? And no, I don't mean giant boobs, a lack of ethnic people, or a really annoying narrator. Nope, what I mean is culture blend. You could be reading a book that has an all 'pale as snow' cast, but for whatever reason the characters are all in a South-East Asian setting and have a love for voodoo. Now some people would say that this is cultural appropriation, and that you should avoid this type of thing in your works. I have seen whole articles on how writers should keep their fantasy cultures with some semblance of 'realism' hence why you don't have black characters in a medieval setting, or white characters in an African setting. However, by doing that I may as well read a historical novel and not spend my hard earned cash on your fantasy book. The wonderful thing about fantasy is the fact that it's a world where anything, within the rules YOU set, are able to happen. That includes having voodoo priests that like Indian curry, and live in an igloo. But, like all things, there's rules to blending cultures. Well it's not really rules, but more like a guideline so that you'll have less pissed off people ranting at you.

 1. Do Your Research- Obvious, but it seems more people are in love with the 'idea' of cultures, than actually having to research them. Make sure you research two different cultures before you put them through the machine. If you want to make your 'blendy culture' to be as rich as possible, then you'll need to research the various aspects of it. If you take only the well known things of say...Japanese culture. Then you'll miss out on the smaller aspects that could have helped move your plot along, or given your characters some of their ideals, or even given some depth to your fantasy world.

2. Some Things DON'T go together- If you're blending a vegetarian Indian-esque culture with a proud African hunter culture, you're doing something wrong. Some things just don't go together because the philosophy or lifestyles don't match. When blending cultures some semblance of commonsense still has to be maintained in order to create a nice cultural blend that everyone can believe that could happen in a real culture.

3. Be Somewhat Sensitive About Your Core Cultures-Don't be an ass and make the 'vaguely Middle Eastern' culture a bunch of terrorists. At the same time don't make the 'vaguely English/American' culture the good guys in every situation. I'm not even sure why I'm having to say this, it seems really obvious, but you know...Some people just don't get it.

4. Be Aware of Naming Patterns-I never understood why people will have an English setting, but will give their characters Persian, Chinese, or Irish names without any good reason being told. I'm sure it's partially because the character is a 'chosen one', 'really royalty', or something, but there's still no excuse. I think this one annoys me the most since naming conventions tell a lot about a country, class, or even a bit about the family that your character was born into. For example the name Yoshino was a common Japanese name for lower class prostitutes. If your female mercenary character was given this name and we later learn she was born into a brothel, that would be a very interesting bit of information that could open up a bit of lore about your world.

So there we go, four things that should help your cultural blending smoothies. Long awaited, like three months really, but well thought out and researched.