Hopeless Trekkie

Culture is a complex dance between the preservation of tradition, predictable communication, and the regulation of emotions.  For example, mutual social understanding of what is expected within a specific situation can help people communicate without speaking, thereby saving them from having to say something potentially hurtful.  Cultural norms keep people civilized and regulate behavior.  They are fundamental to managing expectations within a tribe, but they offer little in ascertaining the expectations of a completely foreign culture.

Picard and crew are on a diplomatic mission to the planet Ligon II to negotiate the acquisition of a lifesaving vaccine.  Not knowing much about the Ligonians and their rigid, traditionalist customs, the Enterprise crew must navigate a cultural clash between two sets of values.  The crew tries to be as diplomatic as possible, while also observing the Prime Directive, but all is abandoned when the Ligonians cross the line…at least according to one cultural context.

At first, Picard is happy to go along with the unfamiliar customs and embrace this culture, but he only did this at the surface level.  We see the captain displaying a formal greeting to the Ligonian leader, Lutan, but it is no more revolutionary than a handshake.  The real dilemma between expectation and offense is much deeper, as the fundamental basis for a culture lies in how it views its members.  Is it a hierarchy, where the perfect, God-appointed people at the top rule the worthless people on the bottom?  Is all life equally precious and invaluable, or are sentient beings disposable at the slightest inconvenience?  The culture’s foundation myth and the shape a deity takes will reveal these beliefs, as the cultural mythos is both the source and outward reinforcement of the interpersonal value system.

According to Ligonian culture, a man can take a woman as his own in order to demonstrate his strength, and Lutan kidnaps Lieutenant Tasha Yar.  The leader was well within his rights to take Tasha, according to his culture.  What is an act of heroic bravery in one context was a crime for another, but to the Ligonians it was a game that must be brought to a conclusion.  All Picard had to do was to play along with asking for Tasha back and then joining a banquet, which was seen as simple politeness and ceremony.  When Lutan deviates from cultural expectations by deciding to keep Tasha, he breaks cultural expectations, but it was still within his right.  When his other wife stands up to challenge this, it is mentioned that this sort of thing has not been done in hundreds of years, highlighting the difference between rights and cultural norms.  The ability to do something is often very different from being expected to do something by those around you.  The encounter between the two cultures inspired behaviors which, although not strictly prohibited, were not the ordinary course of action.  For example, it is unusual for Starfleet officers to find themselves dueling to the death, but they are permitted to defend themselves.  Perhaps fringe behavior is produced by unusual circumstances.  The virtuous Starfleet culture sees itself as tolerant and enlightened, but they also want to be multicultural.  The real issue is when they face a culture which contradicts their own values, forcing them to abandon the very set of behaviors which allow individuals to work together and reach such ideals.  If these ideals could be discarded so easily, then why were they valued in the first place?

Cultural relativism is predicated on the fact that all cultures are valid, because they developed naturally within their own context to be the best way for a certain people to live within a given space at the time, much in the way that evolutionary forces select the most well adapted organism for the environment.  Taking culture out of context is unfair, but circumstances also evolve.  The Legonians could isolate themselves and continue to live out their values, which are suited to a specific time and place, but if they ever wanted to interact with other cultures, or join Starfleet, they would be expected to adapt and change.  The underlying assumption here is that they would have to abandon certain beliefs and behaviors, but which ones?  In this specific situation, they would abandon any behavior which directly contradict any Starfleet code of conduct, but would retain anything which did not clash.

Essentially, the enlightened, futuristic culture of Star Trek can be viewed as an amalgamation of other cultures in a watered-down state.  There may be a theoretical perfect culture toward which we all merge as we discover behaviors most conducive to harmony, or culture could simply be the shedding of unhelpful behaviors as people groups learn to live together.  Either way, it should be directed toward greater harmony if it is to be stable.