Culture Research

[Kristopher]

I'm looking for resources on various old cultures, the ones we don't hear as much about, like the various incarnations of India culture, of pre-Islamic central Asian cultures, various Pacific and India Ocean Island cultures, etc. I need inspiration for beliefs, myths, foods, clothing, customs, etc.

 

Thanks.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Culture Research

 

Three things spring to mind.

 

Wikipedia.

 

The Archaeology section at your local library

 

Calling an Archaeology/Anthro prof at your local college (yes, you're allowed, no, they don't mind) and asking him what books on the subject he recommends.

[Eosin]

Re: Culture Research

 

Start with what you can nab ahold of....

 

I have several books on world mythology - typically these are labeled as dictionaries or encylopedias. Looking at textiles and such becomes much harder but you can dig into nearly any mythology/religion and mine it as a well of information. It also serves as a top down method to quickly eliminate those that don't fit your needs (opposed to looking a what XXX ate which tells you very little about them as a people.)

 

Oh yeah, wiki is very good for this type of info.

[gojira]

Re: Culture Research

 

I'm looking for resources on various old cultures, the ones we don't hear as much about, like the various incarnations of India culture, of pre-Islamic central Asian cultures, various Pacific and India Ocean Island cultures, etc. I need inspiration for beliefs, myths, foods, clothing, customs, etc.

 

Thanks.

 

By "pre-Islamic central Asian cultures," do you mean proto-Indo-European?

 

Check out Oddhat's thread on The Five. He's got some good research going there. Look up words like Tuireann, Perkwunos, and Ukko. Those seem to have a lot of links that lead to other places to get you started. You might also try looking up some of the Hindi gods that Oddhat mentions, see if anything there strikes your fancy.

 

Also try here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language

 

Last, you might try doing some searches on China and the wheel. The Chinese have always claimed indipendant invention of the wheel, but I've seen a special on TV claiming that an Indo-European people brought it to China. These same people had medicine-women with tall conical hats, which later became witches hats when the migrated to Europe. Sorry I can't find it right now, that's all I remember. If you can find it, it might have some more proto-type magical info, or at least a general background. Good luck.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Culture Research

 

I just finished reading 1491, and it had some nice cultural bits about pre-Columbian America, particularly some of the Inka predecessors. National Geographic's been doing some articles about pre-Inkas lately, as well.

[Shike019]

Re: Culture Research

 

Since I am a Librarian, I feel the need to put forth a warning. Be Careful with information you obtain off of Wikipedia. There have been isntances of experts in the field entering articles and others deleting them based on their own personal biases or somesuch.

 

Thank you for your time.

 

I would highly suggest talking to one of the librarians at your local college too. They are also fountains of knowledge (not necessarily for the information but how to find it and where to look). Also I believe that most colleges/universities (in the U.S. at least) have some sort of user privileges for those not attending that school, which includes access to information only available through a college/university/research institution.