A mother culture is a term for an early people' culture, with great and widespread influence on later cultures and people. Though the original culture may fade, the mother culture's influence grows for ages in the future. Later civilizations either learn and build upon their old ways, or can learn them through peaceful or military assimilation. This term can be found in the novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.
A mother culture is what gives birth to a culture, and although it does not necessarily start up its customs, it is the root that gives rise to a grand fruit tree otherwise known as society that can be traced back to its mother. This tree might undergo a catastrophe that will cause all its societies that sprung up to shrivel away but the mother culture is what we attribute to their origins.
Mother cultures in history include that of Kemet in the Mediterranean, and the Olmec in Mesoamerica.
Read more about Mother Culture: In Ishmael
Famous quotes containing the words mother and/or culture:
“Nothing is quite so horrifying and paralyzing as to win the Oedipal struggle and to be awarded your mother as the prize.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“Both cultures encourage innovation and experimentation, but are likely to reject the innovator if his innovation is not accepted by audiences. High culture experiments that are rejected by audiences in the creator’s lifetime may, however, become classics in another era, whereas popular culture experiments are forgotten if not immediately successful. Even so, in both cultures innovation is rare, although in high culture it is celebrated and in popular culture it is taken for granted.”
—Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927)