Culture of Ta'aroha

The culture of Ta'aroha is as varied as the country's geography, and is composed of a mix of ethnic groups and peoples. The cultural development of what is now Ta'aroha is commonly divided into four distinct periods: pre-imperial, imperial, early modern, and late modern.

Important archaeological ruins, gold and silver ornaments, stone monuments, ceramics, and weavings remain from several pre-imperial cultures. Major ruins sites can be found across the country. With the imperial period came several artistic and technological breakthroughs, allowing the Aunic Empire to stretch from what is now Riyata to the Teleri Republic and beyond. Post collapse of the empire, its peoples entered into a cultural dark age, which did not end until permanent contact was established with the eastern hemisphere. From this pouring in of ideas and new technologies came the early modern period, most notable for its Eduran influences. The early modern period is generally regarded as having ended in 1932 with Amapytu Ubirata's seizure of power. His coup was followed by decades of repression and cultural stagnation, only ending with the establishment of the modern Ta'arohan republic in 1998. Today, Ta'aroha is experiencing another period of cultural revival, with new forms of art, architecture, music, literature, and cuisine blossoming from across its Provinces.

Language and literature
Ta'aroha has more than 200 recognized ethnic groups, who speak some 320 languages. According to the 2022 census, 124,959,627 people, the vast majority of the nation, speak Kanasa in some capacity, followed by Riyatian, Teleri, Tiupe, Nuhya, and Aka as the next five highest. Kanasa is the only official state language, but the Constitution gives the individual Provinces the right to make other languages co-official with Kanasa. Kanasa is more or less homogeneous across Ta'aroha, being the most widely spoken of the Aunic language family: the others being Riyatian, Tiupe, and smaller, regional ones. Today, 97% of public school students in Ta'aroha receive their education only or mostly in Kanasa, although there is an increasing number of language immersion schools that have cropped up in order to preserve the smaller, localized languages.

Folklore
Folklore in Ta'aroha takes its roots in the ancient beliefs of the Aunic and pre-Aunic peoples of the region, which are often still represented in modern Kanasa folklore. Epic poems and a strong oral tradition are important parts of Kanasa mythology, but most have also been recorded in writing for purposes of preservation. The oldest epics originating in Ta'aroha come from the northern part of the country, although most epics that are widely remembered today originate in the south from during the imperial period. Many folk tales and epics have since been adapted for animations, or for feature movies.

Folklorists today consider the first two decades of the 20th century to be Ta'aroha's golden age of folklore. The government struggled to uphold its administrative and economic framework in the face of multiple defeats from Riyata, meaning that its censors were not able to effectively control literature. Studies of folklore thrived, with two primary schools coming to form: the ritualist and Pan-Aunic schools. Ritualism focused on the artistic form of the ancient folk tales and epics of those peoples who lived in what would become Ta'aroha, specifically their use of distinctive structures and poetic devices. The Pan-Aunic school was concerned with connections amongst related legends of various Aunic peoples. Pan-Aunic scholars collected comparable tales from multiple places and analyzed their similarities and differences, hoping to trace these epic stories' migration paths.

Once Amapytu Ubirata came to power, the Ta'arohan government began to criticize and repress folklore studies. To keep folklore studies in check and prevent "inappropriate" ideas from spreading amongst the masses, the government created the National Writer's Board. The Board specifically focused on censoring poetry, folklore, and literature, believing that it needed to prevent "harmful" or "decadent" materials from corrupting its citizens. Ubirata also used the board as a tool to control the direction of folklore in the nation, heavily favoring the Pan-Aunic school and their ideas that most Aunic cultures originated from Ta'aroha. Apart from circulating state-approved folktales and literature that already existed, during Ubirata's rule, authors parroting his ideology wrote new folktales and introduced them to the population. These contemporary folktales combined the structures and motifs of the old epics with contemporary life in Ta'aroha. These new tales were considered by some to be the rebirth of the Aunic epic, also explaining to performers the appropriate types of ideology that should be represented in newer stories and songs.

With Ubirata's assassination in 1945, folklorists of the period quickly abandoned the new folktales. Written by individual authors and performers, they did not come from the oral traditions of the nation's people. Consequently, most today consider them to be pseudo folklore, rather than being genuine. Without a true connection to the masses, they argue, there is no reason that they should be considered anything other than temporary literature. Also censorship remained in many forms, the succeeding military junta did not share Ubirata's obsession with folklore, and his projects were abandoned. Specialists decided that attempts to represent contemporary life through the structure and artistry of the ancient epics could not be considered true folklore. Ubirata's name has been omitted from the few surviving pseudo folktales of the period. Rather than considering folklore under Ubirata a rebirth of the traditional Aunic epic, today it is almost universally regarded as a period of repression and falsehood.

Literature
Ta'arohan literature is considered to be among the most influential and developed in the region. It can be traced back to the epics and chronicles of the ancient world. By the early modern era, it grew in importance, largely thanks to influence from Eduran thinkers and writers. Beginning around the 1830s, the Golden Era of Kanasa art began, and poetry, prose, drama, and literature alike in the region under went an astounding period of growth and popularity. The fusion of foreign and native ideas and forms came to be known as Aunicism, characterized by its emphasis on emotion, idealization of nature, suspicion of science and industrialization, and glorification of the past. Following 1938, many prominent writers fled the country to avoid repression, notably to Riyata, Koranel, Edury, and Gladomyr. These writers often formed emigre communities wherever they went, and a great deal of work from this time remains relevant today. Kuarahya (Sunset), a novel generally credited to the authors Anahí Ñasaindy and Jeruti Thainá, is generally the most remembered of these. The novel, written by the two concerning their lives and experiences before, during, and after the Summer War, is still commonly read by students in literature classes.

Humor
Ta'aroha owes much of its wit to the flexibility and richness of the Kanasa language, allowing for puns and unexpected associations. As with any other nation, its vast scope ranges from lewd jokes and silly wordplay to political satire. Kanasa jokes, the most popular form of Ta'arohan humor, are short fictional stories or dialogues with a punch line, often a dark one. Kanasa joke culture features a series of categories with fixed and highly familiar settings, and characters. Surprising effects are achieved by an endless variety of plots.



Visual arts
Ta'arohan visual artworks are similar in style with the ones from other Aunic-majority countries, such as Riyata or Tiepu.

As early as the time of the Aunic Empire, what is now Ta'aroha had many national masters who worked in unique forms. Foreign influences arrived and largely supplanted some of these forms centuries later in the early modern period, and would remain dominant until the dawn of the Summer War. Since the end of the military dictatorship, new, native forms of visual art have again arisen, and Ta'aroha is currently experiencing a rebirth in terms of visual arts.

Architecture
Architecture in Ta'aroha has a great deal of diversity and a long history than spans to pre-Aunic, Aunic, early modern, and present day periods. Architectural ruins from antiquity throughout the nation testify to the greatness of cultures past. The Aunic period is remembered for its monumental structures, built with the labor of thousands and with materials from across Vatupaya. Early modern architecture represents the conjunction of these influences exposed to the styles and traits of foreign schools. During the military dictatorship period, Ta'aroha experienced a rediscovery of Aunic imperial styles, with a lessening of foreign influences. However, the post-Ubirata junta notably embraced many elements of Fundadismo from Ventora. Finally, the New Art movement of the modern day has birthed a new, native-inspired but unique form of architecture simply regarded as the New School.



Folk crafts
Ta'arohan handcrafts and folk art is a complex collection of items made with various materials and intended for utilitarian, decorative, or other purposes. Some of the times commonly produced by hand in Ta'aroha include ceramics, wall hangings, vases, furniture, textiles, and more. Crafts in Ta'aroha created for utilitarian purposes and folk art are collectively known as "ñeʼã" as both have a similar history and both are a valued part of the national identity. Ta'aroha's ñeʼã tradition is a bled of Vatupayic and foreign (commonly Alutran) techniques and designs. This blending was particularly emphasized by Ta'aroha's political, intellectual, and artistic intelligentsia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries following the Ta'aroha Declaration. Today, Ta'arohan ñeʼã remains as a powerful link to the people's past.

Painting
Realism came into dominance in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, due to influences from Edury. The realists captured regional identities in elaborate commissions for nobility, depicting landscapes of wide rivers, forests, and birch clearings, as well as vigorous genre scenes and robust portraits of their patrons. Other artists focused on social criticism, showing the conditions of the poor and caricaturing authority; critical realism thrived in the mid early 19th century, with artists such as Amambái Kamé making the circle of human suffering their main theme. Following the Ta'aroha Declaration, a new generation of Kanasa artists led a vibrant national movement that incorporated political, historic, and folk themes in their work. The National Academy of Visual Arts was established in 1846 with the aim of giving Ta'arohan artists an international role and status. Their grand murals were often displayed on public buildings, promoting social ideals. This style remained prominent until the end of the Second World War, when mass disillusionment with the state led artists to pursue more personal works with abstract elements.

Folk music
Ta'arohan folk music has a rich tradition dating back to the time of the Aunic Empire. Music from this era, much like today, has some kind of wind instrument at the fore (either in the form of a panpipe or flute). However, music was also played on drum and string instruments, in a kind of tradition. Tritonic and pentatonic scales were elaborated upon with the introduction of foreign styles, leading to the addition of hexatonic, and in some cases, diatonic scales. Ta'arohan music is dominated by the national instrument, the yvytu. The yvytu is a member of the wind family, functioning much like a conventional panflute and built to play tritonic, pentatonic, and hexatonic scales.

Folk dance
Unlike other areas, dance in Ta'aroha was left relatively unaffected by foreign influences. Although nobility adopted some foreign (primarily Eduran) dances in fashion during the 19th century, their popularity soon faded in favor of native dances. As a result, many anthropologists consider dance in Ta'aroha to be an art form entirely of native origin. There are dances related to agricultural work, hunting, war, and more. Dancing bears important cultural significance in Ta'aroha, and includes dances such as the purahéi, an ancient form of circle dance, or the hendyva, which utilizes a distinctive rhythm in which the first beat is stressed and followed by two short beats.



Modern music
Despite repression from the ruling junta, popular music in post World War II Ta'aroha produced a number of renowned figures. Despite sanctions from the authorities, pop music flourished and evolved into a major art form enjoyed by the population. By the 1980s, such restrictions had been relaxed somewhat, and numerous bands began touring throughout the nation. Following the end of the junta, pop music has continued to flourish in Ta'aroha, and has produced bands such as Arapytu, Ko'êtî, and Haimbe, In recent times, Tuminguaave'ỹ, a rave band, has gained popularity in Ta'aroha and across Vatupaya.

Cinema and animation
Ta'aroha also has a long and rich tradition of animation, which started in the late 19th century. Ta'arohan animators developed a great variety of techniques and aesthetic styles. Much of Ta'aroha's early cartoon production occurred in the decades leading up to the Second World War, when Dictator Amapytu Ubirata utilized the medium to produce several propaganda pieces. Cultural stagnation during the junta years led to the population codifying characters and catchphrases from these animated shorts and films into everyday use, as generation after generation continued watching the same ones. Although new stories have since been created, these classic tales are firmly cemented in the cultural psyche of Ta'arohans. These include Kavaju the Loroon, Juoha, and Syryague.

Ethnic dress
The traditional dress of the Kanasa people includes the tahachi, a pleated skirt, and the ahoja, a rectangular textile worn as a blanket or as a wrap-around dress held together with a sash. The ahoja is seen as a symbol of cultural pride for Kanasa peoples, especially in rural areas. Traditionally, men will wear dark wool knee-length handwoven kytĩ pants. A woven belt called an ape is also worn, which provides protection to the lower back when working in the fields or the mines. Men's dress includes a woolen waistcoat, with a similar, sleeveless one worn by women. Such garments, called an ovecha on both sexes, can be richly decorated. In colder regions, a kalama is frequently worn. A kalama is a knitted cap with earflaps. The first kalama a child receives is traditionally knitted by their father. In the northwest of Ta'aroha, kalama are often worn ornately adorned with white beads and large tassels called t'ikas. Since ancient times, men have worn small woven pouches called ch'uspa used to carry possessions such as bundled Ka'a leaves or thread. Bowler hats, introduced by Eduran traders centuries ago, are still considered stylish in rural areas.

Cuisine
Due to the rich variety and the harmony of its flavors and ingredients used, Ta'arohan food is often the subject of regional recognition and distinction. One notable element is the constant new innovations and new dishes, especially following the end of the junta and the lifting of international sanctions from the World Forum. Each region of Ta'aroha maintains its rich cuisine by its food having a mix of colors and ingredients. Ta'aroha has a varied cuisine with ingredients like maize, tomato, potato, chilies, chirimoya, and lucuma. Animals incorporated in their cuisine include traditional choices such as sloth or ujox, as well as introduced livestock such as cattle, hogs, goats, and sheep. The combination of native and foreign culinary traditions over time resulted in new meals and new ways of preparing them, creating the one of a kind cuisine as it exists today.