Culturally Cats
by Silver (originally posted to tumblr)
So we consider ourselves culturally cats. Which is, probably an out-there thing to say so lets back up.
We have a shared cat identity that presents differently in each of us. We believe we are this way largely in part because we were raised with cats and largely raised by cats. Our cat did more parenting than anyone else for a certain stretch of time in our lives.This system has been treated like an animal by others for a very long time as well. Is it any wonder the brain imprinted on cats and not humans?
Our socialization was done in large part by cats, and we learned cat social rules and cat manners painstakingly. Cats patiently interacted with us when other humans wouldn't. Its cat behavior that is natural to us. We aren't a feral child - we were not totally isolated at a young age for a prolonged period of time, but we were not properly tamed and human-socialized either.
There are many definitions for culture. The one we are going to be using is that culture is a transmitted set of learned behaviors of a particular group or community.
We share much of our behavior with cats, because that's from whom we learned how to behave- as other venues were often hostile for reasons we didn't understand. Interactions with cats feel natural and are easy the way people are not. It can be argued, and we are doing so, that our learned behaviors from our positive socialization mostly coming from cats growing up are therefore cultural behaviors.
From our proximity to cats and our neurology shaped by what was consistently kind to us and showed us how to behave during our formative years, its the closest thing to a concrete origin for our shared feline identity that we can find. Being Cat is natural to us the way speaking and reading English is natural to all of us. Defining it as just 'psychological in origin' is fine, but we can go deeper- and perhaps in doing so may give important words to others for whom this applies. We were raised cat, so we ARE cat.
Calling our feline identity cultural in origin will likely ruffle some feathers, but its the most fitting word phrase for it. This learned behavior and imprinting effects our neurology such that even new headmates are always cat-alligned or become cat-alligned over time. They may be anything from felinehearted to a cat otherlink, to a cat-adjacent nonhuman of some kind, but everyone here has wound up with a cat-related identity somehow if they were not already as such. The brain was raised cat, so cats and cat-adjacent we are.
Hence- culturally cats.
Defining 'Cultural Nonhuman'.
We suppose this could be considered a coining post for alterhuman vocabulary -as we do not mind if others take up our personal label as well- so we will give a proper definition of this term.
A cultural nonhuman may be defined as someone who in part or in whole considers themselves culturally a nonhuman entity.
This includes both those who consider themselves to have a nonhuman cultural upbringing but don't necessarily identify as nonhuman, and those who identify their origin of nonhumanity as cultural.
Cultural nonhumanity is intended to involve only experiences that happened to the vessel, not exomemories.
This can be a standalone label or a supplement to an existing one.
People who can claim this include but are not limited to:
Those who identify as having been raised by, raised alongside, or otherwise socialized by animals in an identity-altering way.
Those who wish to consider their marginalization or dehumanization a nonhuman cultural upbringing.
Correct word usage includes: ‘I am a cultural nonhuman’, ‘my nonhumanity is cultural’, ‘I am culturally a (species)’.
Some examples: ‘Jane is a cultural nonhuman and considers herself doghearted’, ‘Jack is a transspecies goat whos nonhumanity is cultural’, ‘Juice is a cat therian and xe considers xer theriotype origin to be cultural’.
Differences from Voidpunk- A cultural nonhuman may choose to call themselves voidpunk, and vice versa, as dehumanization from society on a wide scale due to marginalization can count as cultural nonhuman thing, but not all those who are voidpunk are culturally nonhuman, and not all cultural nonhumans are voidpunk.
Differences from psychological origin- ‘Cultural nonhuman’ can be considered a type of psychological origin, but not all psychological alterhumans are culturally nonhuman.
!THERE IS NO OFFICIAL FLAG OR SYMBOL FOR THIS TERM PLEASE DO NOT MAKE ONE UNLESS A SIGNIFICANTLY LARGE NUMBER OF PEOPLE START USING THIS TERM AND SAID COMMUNITY WAS WIDELY CONSULTED ABOUT IT THANK YOU!