: Re: How do I write "fantasy counterpart cultures" without being accused of cultural appropriation? In my book series, the various planets of the galaxy are inhabited by different cultures, most of

@Angela458

I think the better question is "what is culture?". The norms, songs, literature, food, clothing, forms of government, and philosophy of a people stem from their common history, their environment, and their struggles. At the inception of any given collection of people, there is no culture, unless they, as a nation, are derived from a previous, ancestral, nation.
Further, learning from others how to navigate through the trying times or adapt to new environments, is not appropriation, it's intelligence. If it were appropriation and that were somehow not fashionable, or in some way prohibited, none but the original people would have the wheel.
The real point is don't mock people. Don't attempt to reduce their culture to a caricature. If the fictional peoples in your story have similar traits and cultures to actual nations, alluding to how they arrived at their cultural norms should suffice.

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