Culture (Superpowers)

Culture (Latin: Cultura), in the Superpowers world, is a term with two different but strongly linked meanings. The first, more general definition is that culture is a set of shared attributes, values, beliefs, goals, practices and ideals that distinguish a society, organization or nation. The other, which is far more exclusive, is a sense of excellent tastes in the finer arts and the humanities. People who prefer either approach to culture all agree on the point that its about a sense of improvement, or cultivation of oneself to achieve something, but what exactly is that something has always been the point of contention. In Superpowers, owing to large national bodies dominating the world, existing cultures are far grander than OTL, but also a lot more open to outside influences.

The Romans especially have their culture influenced by other cultures, whilst at the same time their influence is even more profound. This is reflective of the second definition, the one which most Roman intellectuals support. Most Romans operate under the belief that "Culture" (Humanitas) is working towards some ultimate end, and they believe that the Roman Empire is the most important means to that end. The peculiar aspect of this egocentric belief is that it doesn't blind the Romans to the good in other cultures. In fact, for nearly all of their history, the Romans have been taking the beneficial or useful aspects of cultures that they have encountered and "Romanized" them, both "improving" and assimilating their ideas. By not opposing new influences, but rather controlling them, the Romans have prospered above others for centuries. This method of assimilation has turned the Roman Culture into a beautiful tapestry of the various nations under, and even outside of their rule.

Most other cultures, the Japanese especially, see the incursions and influences of other cultures as an attack on their society. Nations which uphold this belief try to encourage homogeneity in their cultural tapestry, and usually make efforts to block out other influences. The Columbians for instance have enforced the idea of retaining traditional values, ones which they'd held for centuries prior to the arrival of the Europeans and the Mayans. Most attempts though to stay isolated have proven failures in their different ways, either because the foreigners were too strong, or their own people desired change too much. However, similarly to the process of Romanization, nations have usually benefited, rather than waned by accepting other cultural values into their own.

Religion
Religion in the Superpowers has both similarities and differences to religion OTL. The main difference is the importance which most people place in religion, even in the modern ATL setting. In OTL about 15% of the world's population either rejects or does not take part in religious practices, in this timeline however that number is only about 2% or so. An even smaller percentage, hardly even 1%, would describe themselves as atheists (or something like it). Out of a world population of 7.9 billion people that's less than 80 million people. As well, religious belief is more highly concentrated amongst the developed countries, like Rome, Mongolia or Japan, and less so within the UCC or Danemarc.

The two dominant religions are Christianity, in particular Roman Christianity, which has over 2.3 billion followers, and Buddhism, which has around 2.2 billion. The largest religion after those is the belief in the Mayan God Kinich Ahau, a religion which has about 1.1 billion followers. After that are Shinto and Hinduism which have 380 and 350 million adherents respectively. Next is the veneration of the Inca Pantheon, which about 300 million people ascribe to. The next major religion is Islam with 170 million followers and then Judaism with only about 80 million. As well shamanistic or animist beliefs are extremely present, and together are followed by around 580 million people. There is no specific animist belief that predominates, as each one is largely unique on its own. However, the UCC does have a unique federal religious system that comprises about 70-90 million believers, though due to the ambiguity, this number could even be much higher.