In my first post of the week, I started out by listing a few
different species that are found in Star Trek. There are many species in the
Star Trek universe, some humanoid, some not so humanoid. While I’m not about to
go through all of them, I am going to touch on a few key races that are often
seen and referenced throughout the various shows and movies. Most (okay pretty much all) of this information is pulled from the Star Trek wiki,
Memory Alpha.
Ok, first of all, I love the Vulcans, even though their
constant logic gets old and annoying after a while. The Vulcans are known for
their logic and stoic nature. The Vulcans were once an extremely violent and
emotional people (even by Earth standards) who waged almost constant warfare on
one another. Paranoia and homicidal rage were common. They believed in a
variety of gods, such as war, peace and death. As their level of technology
improved, the Vulcans eventually reached a point where their violent nature
threatened species extinction. In an effort to avoid this fate, a Vulcan named
Surak developed a new philosophy. Surak maintained that the root cause of all
the problems on Vulcan lay in the uncontrolled outpouring of the people's
emotions. His followers swore to live their lives by an ethical system devised
by Surak and based purely on logical principles. Emotions were to be controlled
and repressed. Although this new philosophy spread rapidly across Vulcan, a
minority, many of whom were known as "those who march beneath the Raptor's
wings", rejected Surak's ideals. A destructive war began including the use
of atomic bombs and among the victims was Surak himself. . Eventually, however,
those who opposed logic left Vulcan and founded colonies elsewhere – most
notably on the planet Romulus, where they founded what eventually became the
Romulan Star Empire.
While the Vulcans do come across as cold and unfeeling. They
do have emotions, very strong intense emotions. Unchecked Vulcan emotions are
far more intense, violent, and passionate than the emotions of many other
species, including humans. The Vulcans blamed their explosive emotions for the
cycle of wars that nearly destroyed them. Instead, they focused their mental
energy on mastering their emotions. Vulcans are honest, they are known for
their high degree of honesty, and don’t like to lie, but if they have a logical
enough reason, they will lie but don’t actually consider it to be “lying.” The
essence of their logical society is in arriving at the truth through logical
process.
The Klingons are a humanoid warrior species that originated from
the planet Qo’noS (Kronos). The Klinongs are one of the major powers of the
galaxy and are a proud, tradition-bound society that values honor and combat.
Their aggressive culture makes them an interstellar military power to be both
respected and feared. The Klingon Empire was founded some time in the 9th
century by Kahless the Unforgettable, who performed many heroic feats including
the unification of the Klingon people when he killed the tyrant Molor. Kahless
came to be revered in Klingon society to the point of near-deification, and
many aspects of Klingon culture came to revolve around an emulation of Kahless'
life. The warrior ethos had been an important aspect of Klingon society since
the time of Kahless, but the warrior aspects became much more dominant
beginning in the early 22nd century. Previously, Klingon society was regarded
as socially balanced, but over time, the warrior caste gained greater
prominence, to the point where the Klingons widely came to be regarded as a "warrior
race." Because of their aggressive outlook, the Klingons generally had
poor relations with other races after they began to move out into space.
Because the worlds of the Klingon Empire were resource-poor, the Klingons
developed an intense belief in the need for expansion and conquest in order to
survive. The Klingons' relationship with Humans and the Federation was rocky at
best.
Klingon society was extremely complex. Before its decline in
the mid 22nd century and again in the late 23rd century, Klingon society was
based on a feudal system organized around traditional Great Houses of noble
lineage, to which various parts of the population owed fealty. The Great Houses
are traditionally represented in the Klingon High Council, which is led by a
Chancellor. Ritual was a very important element in Klingon society. While the
Klingons were not a religious people as such, they did believe that deities
existed at one time. However, Klingon warriors supposedly slew their gods, as
they were considered to be more trouble than they were worth. Klingons did not
believe in fate; however, they did appear to believe in some form of luck. Once
a Klingon died, the spirit was considered to have exited the body, leaving
behind a worthless shell to be disposed of. In the Klingon death ritual, it was
traditional for those on hand to howl into the sky, as a warning to the
afterlife that a Klingon warrior was about to arrive.
The Ferengi are a warp-capable humanoid species from the
planet Ferenginar. Ferengi civilization was built on a caricature of free
enterprise, where earning profit was the sole meaningful goal in life, superseding
all other endeavors. The Ferengi governing body, known as the Ferengi Alliance,
was formed over a period of ten thousand years, beginning with the
establishment of a system of currency, to their purchase of warp technology,
and finally to its state in the 24th century. The Ferengi culture was
centralized around the concept of greed and profit earning. As Quark once put
it, "There is nothing beyond greed. Greed is the purest, most noble of
emotions." Finally, the 10th Rule of Acquisition states that "greed
is eternal." However, the Ferengi managed to avoid many of the worst
aspects of an evolving culture and their social history was notable for the
absence of atrocities such as slavery or genocide, a distinction the Ferengi
felt made them morally superior (though their definition of "slavery"
clearly did not extend to their treatment of women). Ferengi culture slowly
grew out of its early stages by introducing a remarkable economic system that
developed from early bartering systems to become one of the leading cultures in
interstellar commerce. Unlike most other cultures who frequently idolize
warriors or politicians, businessmen were the pillars of Ferengi society for
millennia. This tendency led to the slow merging of business and political
fields in Ferengi culture and that influence was evident in the near-universal
application of the Rules of Acquisition, as both a personal and financial code
of ethics. The Rules of Acquisition provided advice that all good Ferengi
followed, in order to lead a profitable life. For example, the first Rule of
Acquisition was "Once you have their money, you never give it back." In
addition to the Rules, the Ferengi also recognized the Five Stages of
Acquisition: infatuation, justification, appropriation, obsession, and resale. They
also recognized these traits in other species; Earth's Wall Street was regarded
with near-religious reverence by Ferengi. Despite their profit-based culture,
the Ferengi were also known to love and care for their family to the extent
that these sentiments could even take precedence over pursuit of profit.
Ferengi society and culture was highly misogynistic and
patriarchal. As such, laws and cultural norms reflected and deeply
institutionalized such misogyny and discrimination. Ferengi women were referred
to as "females." They were barred from most aspects of society, such
as not being allowed to earn profit or to travel. They were not even allowed to
wear clothes and were expected to be undressed at all times. "Thinking
about things", as Quark once put it, was not something neither expected
nor desired by females. Neither was having opinions or political views. They
further were not allowed to have any claim to the estate of a husband should
the marriage end, as all females were generally required to sign a waiver of
property and profit, giving up any such claim. Marriage, like everything else
in Ferengi culture, was a business contract, signed between the prospective
groom and the bride's father, in which the father leased his daughter to the
groom for a set period (usually five years) for an agreed fee, paid on the
birth of a son. Pregnancies were considered rentals under Ferengi law. Ferengi
females were not allowed to wear clothes, leave their homes without male
escort, or speak to males they were not related to. Their role as caregiver to
the male children of a family was strictly defined. Mothers were expected to
teach their children the Rules of Acquisition, and to soften their male
children's food by chewing it for them. Because of this, Ferengi males were
often very protective and loving of their mothers, and this was even reflected
in the Rules of Acquisition; Rule 31 was "Never make fun of a Ferengi's
Mother." By the late 24th century, females made up 53.5% of the Ferengi
population and some Ferengi began to realize that exclusion of females from business
represented a significant loss of profit opportunities. In the latter half of
the century, Ishka – Quark's mother – and Grand Nagus Zek led a movement aimed
at reforming cultural traditions that had excluded women, starting by giving
females the right to wear clothing. The idea was that giving females that right
allowed them to have pockets. Once they had pockets, they would likely want to
fill them with latinum, so they were going to need jobs. After they started
earning latinum, they were going to want to spend it, which meant Ferenginar
would expand its workforce and consumer base at the same time. Initial progress
toward this goal seemed less than promising, but by 2375, with the ascension of
the progressive Rom to the position of Grand Nagus, the likelihood of further
reforms seemed inevitable.
There are many other aspects to these three cultures as well
as many other species that have cultures just as intricate as the ones I chose
for this post. I am planning to do a post on Q and the Q Continuum (mostly
about Q) and I might through the Borg in there as well. Live long and prosper.
Sanders out.
