Fenxy

Wow Gnorb that sounds really awesome. At the moment, I don't have an answer for you. I just wanted to say how awesome that sounds. I will get back to you. I need to think about this for a minute or so.

Alrighty. First I have questions for you because I can't really answer without this information.

1. Is our society still based heavily on industry and capitalism?
2. What's the current economic driving force?
3. What are the basic units of a city/tribal area? In other words, what's the basic infrastructure?
4. Basically, why did the population shrink? You don't have to go into detail, but I think a huge part of the current make up of society would be based heavily on how the population dramatically shrank.

1. The old one was. The new one, no.

2. There isn't one. (Or rather, basic barter economy, at best.) Economics deals with the production and distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management. If there's enough to go around, why the need for economics? Also, technological development is almost at zero and stuff has already broken down. Most people don't rely on technology anymore.

3. Basic infrastructure varies. Feel free to make some stuff up. I have my own ideas here, but I'll let your imagination run wild. But think: Population of NYC on a workday, one not-so-small-anymore planet.

4. Unsustainable infrastructure based on hierarchical dominion of plants, animals and humans. War and disease lead to a breakdown in the food supply chain, leading to mass starvation. War also causes a large number of deaths. After that, humanity's numbers diminish due to decreased birth rates

I think most of the characteristics you're looking for will come out of necessity, so should be closely tied to whatever changes happened in those 400 years to our environment, especially any biological changes.

So yeah, what josh said.

Tribal cultures are more communal, but that doesn't mean communism, just cooperation and looking out for each other. They'll live close together and interact with a good portion of the town/tribe/village on a daily basis.

I think most of the cultural trends will come out of survival needs. lots of interesting stuff you can do there.

Here are my answers so far. I will probably refine and change them up a bit after more contemplation.

1. What aspects of current culture do you imagine will survive, and why? What other trends might be revived? This is a bit hard, because I think that most aspects, very nearly all, are based on how we live currently. If that changes dramatically, I doubt that many aspects of our culture would make it. The only thing that I think would survive is:
   • Our growing awareness of what's around us and how we affect our environment. Obviously if we were to become a tribal society, a huge emphasis would be placed on preserving and protecting our resources. Not to prevent another global warming scare but just to be able to live off of what is around us with doing the least amount of damage so that those resources will be around as long as possible. Since you stated that
     

     4. Unsustainable infrastructure based on hierarchical dominion of plants, animals and humans. War and disease lead to a breakdown in the food supply chain, leading to mass starvation. War also causes a large number of deaths. After that, humanity's numbers diminish due to decreased birth rates

     then this would make sense.
2. What do you see happening to us as a species, biologically? This would depend on the main diets, climate conditions, and generally how these people live. I can't imagine that anything drastic would happen biologically to humans.
3. What aspects of our culture will not survive or are unsustainable? See the following:
   • The individual is out, the group is in. I agree with Ozone in that
     

     Tribal cultures are more communal, but that doesn't mean communism, just cooperation and looking out for each other. They'll live close together and interact with a good portion of the town/tribe/village on a daily basis.

     Since technology is virtually non-existent, and much of our culture is based on the fact that we have a vast amount of technological resources available to us, the focus would go from the individual to a more group-centric focus. A tribe would essentially become someone's family. Special occasions would be celebrated by the whole community instead of with just close family.
   • The breakdown of education. I would imagine that because the tribal society would be more focused on survival that education would play a minor role. Think of farmers back in the day. Children old enough to help with the harvest would help and would stop attending school. This would especially be important since the population has dwindled. Although, I do think that education should have some role, it shouldn't be non-existent.
4. How will a tribal culture emerge from a hierarchical one? I think the main cause of that would be the lack of technology. Also, with such a small population remaining, every human would have more value and be looked upon as an equal.

@joshawesome and @Ozone42: Great, logical ideas. Now exercise your imagination a bit: what would an average day be like if you were born to that society. What kind of challenges would you see? What spectrum of ideologies would you come across? Would you try to rebuild the old system and technology? Would others? If rebuilding, how would you ensure that we had sustainable growth, and what mistakes from the past would you want to make sure were never repeated? What about art and music, what forms would they take? Would we see a return of the fireside story? Take the society you live in right now and make it the past of this new society. What social norms are kept? What norms are discarded?

A tribal culture will be splintered. Each tribe cohesive, but the tribes will be separated by more imposing distance than we are today. Ideologies will differ greatly region to region. In areas with lush land and animal life, you'll have a more open and laid back lifestyle, followed by population boom. In harsher climates that necessitate more work you'll get the invention of holidays/festivals to break up the daily grind and to reward themselves for good harvests/plantings/etc.

Those that want to rebuild the technology will be a faction, but in the minority, and will not be concerned about repeating past mistakes. It'd be likely for high tech machines to be vilified a la Dune and quite a few other sci-fi epics. That's not to say you have to go down that path, but it's done because it seems to make sense.

@Ozone42: Interesting thoughts. Can you get more specific? How would today's religions play into this, or would they be largely rejected? How would current tribal societies be affected, if at all, by the changes? Can you come up with a scenario for yourself? Can you describe what YOUR average day would be like?

1. What would an average day be like if you were born to that society? Work, whether that be farming, gathering, hunting, carpentry, or what have you. I would think that family/community meals would be given huge emphasis and take up a portion of the day. This would also be the time where entertainment would be most prevalent.
2. What kind of challenges would you see? Guarding against any predators or threats to the way of life would be huge challenges and would probably be the biggest challenge.
3. What spectrum of ideologies would you come across? I agree with Ozone when he says that
   

   Ideologies will differ greatly region to region. In areas with lush land and animal life, you'll have a more open and laid back lifestyle, followed by population boom. In harsher climates that necessitate more work you'll get the invention of holidays/festivals to break up the daily grind and to reward themselves for good harvests/plantings/etc.

   For holidays, I would think that they would revolve around any sort of harvesting, or growing season, as well as any sort of natural seasonal change. Tribal cultures are deeply intertwined with the Earth's cycles.
4. Would you try to rebuild the old system and technology? Would others? Again, I agree with Ozone. Some would try to rebuild some of the old technologies, however, I think that they would try to rebuild the technologies that would improve life, like medical technologies.
   • If rebuilding, how would you ensure that we had sustainable growth, and what mistakes from the past would you want to make sure were never repeated? I would think that any sort of mega-bomb would be avoided. Any sort of mass destruction would want to be avoided for that matter. I don't think that technology would evolve fast enough for that to happen in one or two generations however, probably more than that.
5. What about art and music, what forms would they take? I would think that pottery and ceramics would be a huge part of the artistic culture. As well has paintings and murals. I think that most of this would revolve around nature. As for music, instruments would be limited to what they could make from readily available resources. I think folk music would probably be the main genre.
6. Would we see a return of the fireside story? Yes. Storytelling would play a huge role in the culture. From history, these are usually the first stories that are put to paper.
7. Take the society you live in right now and make it the past of this new society.
   • What social norms are kept? I can't imagine that there would be very many that would remain. The way of life would be completely different than what it was in the past.
   • What norms are discarded? Pretty much all of them. I can't really think of any off the top of my head that would actually remain.
8. How would today's religions play into this, or would they be largely rejected? I would think that today's religions would be non-existant in the future, tribal society. I think that the future tribal society would revert back to a more Earth-centric religion, with many Gods depicting the various aspects of nature.
9. How would current tribal societies be affected, if at all, by the changes? Different tribes would obviously have different beliefs, especially the ones from different regions. However, I don't think that religious differences would play that big of a role between the tribes.

That's all I have at the moment. I'll have to think more and get back to you.