The Manana Complex
Agrarian vs. Polis Business Culture
Business, what is it? A narrow definition would say it’s the exchange system for transfer of goods and services between discreet entities, but broadly one could simply say, “It’s anything I do, say or think”. Consider the useage of the phrase, “Stay out of my business!”, and the broad array of objects it can be applied to, for example, the song Business Time, by The Flight of the Concords, which details a couple’s uninspiring pre-sex routine. Just as the topic of business can be broadened to include everyday minutia, the cultural minutia also flows the other direction to color an individual’s perception of business. This paper will explore fundamental differences in business culture between agrarian and city dwelling populations and the resulting behavioral patterns those differences encourage.
Sections:
1. Resource Tied Relative Group Cohesion
2. Tradition vs. Innovation (backward or forward thinking)Music, food, art
3. Education & Skill Set Development
4. Social Mobility and the Apple Tree Analogy ((big tree, many ladders, many positions to fill and move through)
5. Travel, Trade and Marketing Media Beartraps
But first, a note on the writing, the paper has been done in the scholastic method through presented discourses. Ideally, this collection of beliefs would be presented before a group with the a priori assumptions available for challenge; however, this is not practical. Attention has been given to make the postulates and following assumptions clear though the author acknowledges his own, inescapable, personal bias and limited view. Evolutionary and behavioral psychologies have provided the basis for much of this writing.
Resource Tied Relative Group Cohesion
In the Middle Ages there were 3 classes to which you could belong, the nobility, the church, or the 3rd estate (the people who worked). Belonging to the nobility offered the best shot at resources desired in the short term, as the temporal power they could take what was desired and create laws to justify. The church offered long term physical security though communal efforts and an opportunity to specialize labor in exchange for group obedience. The majority of any population was the 3rd estate, made up by the farmers, merchants, craftsmen and laborers. For these people life was unpredictable, the nobility was free from most legal concerns, and the church held papal courts, so there was little legal recourse if wronged by a member from either group. Those two populations also had the first privileges of goods brought in by trade, or created locally, which resulted in the 3rd estate first bearing the burden of shortages among all classes of goods.
In response to these conditions, individuals would seek out a patron in the nobility, church or more affluent member of the 3rd estate in an attempt to obtain a voice in the courts, regular work, or even a reliable source of food and shelter. Professional groups, such as the Masons, also emerged to help transfer skills and hedge an individual’s potential shortfalls among the greater community. In many ways these groups mimicked the role of the church by providing resource networks though individual group members, collective group projects and private court systems.
Within each of these three groups there is a complex but agreed upon (as a condition of group membership) hierarchical order. Higher levels offered greater resource availability alongside greater oversight. At the lowest levels all of one’s own labor would be directed by an external force and through different methods in each group an individual could come to direct their own labor, then choose and direct their own labor, and then oversee the labor of others to a larger and larger degree.
The nobility offered men advancement through titles and privileges bestowed by the individuals who were in a position to do such things; by curing their favor or by a real advancement of their goals. Women could marry in, up, or hang around as a mistress to advance their lot, the real successes were the male heir producing type or the best option in a lineage conflict. Either sex could branch out and become a noble merchant, or a religious noble, but their noble status would only benefit indirectly.
In the church, education and obedience would take you to the professional level, 10 years of study, demonstration of group ideals though visible prayer and collective benefiting labor could qualify you as a priest, an individual licensed to perform the mass and to be a communities personal representative of God, but even then other individuals in the church would have the power to stop your advancement. After this level it would be partly a demonstration of the group objectives but really it would be though currying the favor of the individuals making advancement decisions.
The process from priest to bishop to cardinal to pope is all elected, and people in the position to advance others would be deeply committed to the existing system that provided their power, and would want to advance individuals that shared their own goals and were committed to protecting the existing system.
The clergy would also branch out into mercantilism or through the nobility, and these relationships could be of great assistance in currying the favor of their superiors. Because the church had great use for consumer goods as well as political favors, not specializing in either department itself, an individual would be able to satisfy the unprovided for desires of the advancers and rise in status more rapidly than an individual only advancing the stated goals of the group.
Therefore, resource network building would be a major goal of advancement minded individuals in communities built upon relativistic advancement measures. If large enough, these networks would act as stabilizing forces in the greater community; as mercantilism and political structure is the most productive in stable political environments, so the clergy would have incentive to stabilize the area if their own standing was strong, just as to spread discord if their position was weak. The greater organization down to the parish priest would be influenced by the groups financially supporting them, and would publicly work to advance the goals of either the nobility or 3rd estate.
Power in the 3rd estate came directly from the ability to direct others labor, through either the material resources to buy an individual’s time or as the director of a charismatic collective goal. The true goals benefit’s ownership, control or distribution rarely lay in the hands of the group members, but the belief that it would upon the success of the undertaking, or simply that the group’s lot would be improved, is a constant presence in persuasive literature from any group.
This segment, the population subset that exists primarily in the 3rd estate and comes to power through the acquisition and direction of labor, is the group focused on in this study. It exists within a greater system of forces that will exert influence and provide for gain, thereby predisposing a population’s advancement along desired channels. For example, a government who values scientific advancement above all else and creates a multitude of high paying jobs for scientists is creating the environment that will encourage a greater quantity of scientists to emerge. 3rd estate groups, as all other groups, will act in their self-interest to help encourage conditions that will lead to the success of the group.
Most times groups rise to power through innovation and improvement on current offerings. Next we’ll explore how the use of innovation will further subdivide this group.