Cardassian - Culture

Culture

Cardassians tend to be predatory in nature, like wolves always seeking a dominant position in social gatherings. In normal courting behavior, Cardassian couples routinely act bitter and snap at each other. Cardassian society generally exhibits little or no sexual bias; for example, both men and women can rise to high ranks in the military. However, some fields are not so diverse, as the scientific community is mostly female. (It was implied in the episode "Destiny" that males are inept at engineering endeavors, but this could just be bias: probably most males take up military careers, leaving the scientific field open to women.) When representatives of the science ministry visited DS9 in "Destiny", they were noticeably less nationalistic than most Cardassians seen previously.

Cardassia's educational system is legendary throughout the quadrant. From a very young age, Cardassian children are trained in techniques such as photographic memory which allow them to retain vast amounts of information. Cardassian mental disciplines are rumored to be so complete that a Cardassian will prove almost totally resistant to torture; a Vulcan mind meld is also usually ineffective against a properly trained Cardassian.

Cardassians are generally cunning and suspicious. This is evident in battle, as evidenced in "Soldiers of the Empire" in which a Klingon speaks admiringly of Cardassian adversaries who always had "a plan within a plan within a plan leading to a trap". A popular Cardassian board game is Kotra, which, as Garak describes it, favors bold tactical maneuvers over defensive play; hence Garak's criticism of Nog's attempts to regroup his pieces during a game they played in the episode "Empok Nor".

In Cardassian criminal trials the defendant is presumed guilty and in fact the punishment is already decided before the trial begins; the purpose of the trial (effectively a show trial) is merely to help the defendant acknowledge his wrongdoing. In Cardassian mystery novels, everyone is always guilty, the puzzle being to work out who is guilty of what. In Cardassian mythology the Galor deity was a helmeted, warrior demigod of antiquity. Tribute is paid to the vessel class of the same name as well as the likeness seen in the national symbol.

Cardassians are also very concerned about their families. For example, Garak enters a Dominion prison camp to speak with his father, Enabran Tain, one last time before Tain died. In another incident Gul Dukat is driven insane when his daughter Tora Ziyal dies. In Cardassian society, advanced age is seen as a symbol of power and dignity; it is common for many generations of Cardassian families to live together under one roof. And most Cardassians look after both their children and parents with equal devotion. The Cardassian ancient ritual of shri-tal allows a dying person to reveal his or her secrets to the rest of the family, for use against their enemies.

Cardassian literature often confounds humans, and vice versa. For example, humans see all Cardassian mystery stories as having an identical plot: the inevitable result is that all the suspects are eventually proved guilty of the crime and proving the supremacy of the state. One of their most revered forms of literature is the repetitive epic, which traces a family throughout history, focusing on each generation's virtually identical allegiance to the state. (See "The Never-ending Sacrifice", one such epic in Elim Garak's collection. The fictional plot focuses on the protagonists' lifelong duty and commitment to the state for several generations.)

Conversely, most Cardassians figure out during the first act of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar that all the conspirators are going to kill him, but cannot understand why Caesar cannot figure this out (or is willfully blind to an impending coup d'état) until the knives are literally coming at him from all directions. Likewise, most Agatha Christie books (Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None being the exceptions) cause Cardassians great difficulty, as, whilst the idea that a high-ranking person is killed in mysterious circumstances appeals, they cannot understand why only one person is guilty.