Protoculture culture contact Modus Operandi

[RedWolf]

Watching Macross Dynamite 7 I was wondering why most Zolans did not know of either Whale graveyard or of Murals and (Protoculture) scripts. Graham's family on the otherhand pass the knowledge orally.

Then it struck me. I shouldn't think all aliens are the same, culturally speaking. Humans despite being a species on one planet have a number of different cultures.

If he same were applied to Zolans they have different ethnic groups and cultures also.

Also in terms of space development Zolans are relatively recent much like Macross humans. Zolans probably had a jump technologically when they made first contact with the joint Human and Zentradi expanding NUNG.

If these conditions were so how did the Zolans know of the 7000 year death and rebirth cycle? They don't appear to have a 14,000 year old civilization.

The answers lie in the Protoculture modus opeandi of selecting a small isolated ethnic group or tribe and giving them a simplified version of their beliefs.

Why do I say this? Because these are the conditions of the Mayan culture in Macross Zero.

Around 10,000 years ago the Protoculture made contact with a single small isolated human tribe on Earth teaching them their culture. Giving them clues to their ancestors origins. These were passed down generation after generation through oral tradition.

On Earth the Protoculture taught the Mayan natives about their beliefs about the Vajra. Even leaving one or more Fold Quartz. A doomday weapon is also left just in case Humans become a threat.

On Zola the Protoculture left a record about the life cycle of Vahla Ena or Galactic Whales. Leaving also behind symbiotic lifeforms (Zolan snakes) that can translate their text on murals.

By the time either Humans and Zolans reach space the cultures that the Protoculture met were already dying with only a fewer individuals keeping the oral traditions alive.

[VFTF1]

>reads quewstions.

>>tries to think.

>>>head explodes.

Pete

[polidread]

oral traditions being a fragile and easily modified form of history keeping has a HUGE discussion underneath it in linguistic and anthropological studies

in forms such as epic poems, stories told by fireside, folklore, and YES, in song.

Exedol and Britai did talk about preserving their newly reawakened culture by helping protect Minmay and her song in DYRL...

[Fadooski]

Then it struck me. I shouldn't think all aliens are the same, culturally speaking. Humans despite being a species on one planet have a number of different cultures.

If the same were applied to Zolans they have different ethnic groups and cultures also.

Good point, but that could just as easily be applied to the Protoculture. This is a species that existed for hundreds of millennia and spread throughout the Milky Way. We often assume that the Stellar Republic civil war had two factions but there may well have been hundreds. The conflict described in DYRL that split along gender lines may only have been one particular conflict within a longer and more complicated galactic war. The thousand or two fleets that Exedol mentioned at the end of the film may well have corresponded to as many factions.

'Protoculture' is simply a label applied by sub-protocultures (humans, zentradi, zolan and others) to describe this ancient dead culture that's known only through a few artifacts:

1. ASS-1 our beloved Macross
2. AFOS, the angel or bird-man
3. the zentradi themselves :their language, combat manuals/last orders and the knowledge of their Archivists
4. Ai Oboeteimasuka,
5. the murals/cave paintings on the Zolan homeworlds
6. the temple found in Macross 7 (albeit destroyed by the protodeviln as soon as it was discovered)
7. the various protoculture ruins refered to in the begining of that one episode of Macross Frontier. (Ranka wasn't paying attention to the teacher anyway!)

This might seem like a lot but it's likely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to who and what the Protoculture really were. The various remnants may have been completely different entities that had very little in common with each other outside of a common ancestry:

1. the people who built and later abandoned the city atlita
2. the people who visited Mayan island and passed on the adapted version of their culture to the locals
3. whoever built and sent the AFOS to Earth might not have been the same as whoever created the Mayan Island people
4. The Anima spiritia who sealed away the protodevlin
5. Any remaining protoculture who merged the various Zentran and Meltran fleets and faced down the supervision/inspection army
6. Any brainwashed protocultured people in the ranks of the Supervision army.

So we can assume that any protoculture contact with sub-protocultures would have been very very individualistic and idiosyncratic. We're already seeing the Human-Zentradi UNG becoming more and more like the protoculture: spreading throughout the galaxy, with each colonization fleet becoming more and more autonomous and the UNG's sphere of influence grows. Maybe by the time the stellar republic civil war broke out, the protouculture had become so distended that there was no over-arching connection between them. Grace's master plan was sold as a solution to such problems.

Edited September 21, 2009 by Fadooski

[Zinjo]

So we can assume that any protoculture contact with sub-protocultures would have been very very individualistic and idiosyncratic. We're already seeing the Human-Zentradi UNG becoming more and more like the protoculture: spreading throughout the galaxy, with each colonization fleet becoming more and more autonomous and the UNG's sphere of influence grows. Maybe by the time the stellar republic civil war broke out, the protouculture had become so distended that there was no over-arching connection between them. Grace's master plan was sold as a solution to such problems.

For all we know an intent to implement a similar fold network in the Stellar Republic may have been what started the PC civil war... One side saw it as a benefit to the over extended republic while the other saw it as a tool for potential abuses and eventual slavery. Most civil wars are fought over ideologies, not because one side is evil and the other is not.

[anime52k8]

>reads quewstions.

>>tries to think.

>>>head explodes.

Pete

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC_mAYmK43o