is there any society where people are ostracised for not possessing difficult skills?
Depending on what you call “difficult”. I think you will try to fit in if 80%+ of your peers know the skill, but OTOH if 80%+ people know have the skill then is it “difficult”?
In gen pop I feel this way about driving cars—some people hate it and have to deal with a lot of stress/anxiety to learn this skills and although they could live without it. But living without it means they can’t do some of the things—they have less power.
I’d say then the power motivation (increase the space of your action) could be lumped together with the economic one or form a separate one.
Similar skill like this—learning a language. In gen pop it’s seldom the case unless you live in a country where 3⁄4 people know a second language (sadly not the case in my country). But it afaik it worked in the past with some elite societes where people learned french (lingua franca) or greek or latin or something to fit in. Languages also increase the space of your actions (you can understand more by yourself, talk to more people etc.) so this again could be “power” motivated.
Ok, I buy language—I think indeed, for example in 19th century Russia learning French was a marker of “fitting in” aristocracy, although it was not required for life. But I don’t know if there is any such society anymore where some social group tends to learn some language for status reasons only.
Depending on what you call “difficult”. I think you will try to fit in if 80%+ of your peers know the skill, but OTOH if 80%+ people know have the skill then is it “difficult”?
In gen pop I feel this way about driving cars—some people hate it and have to deal with a lot of stress/anxiety to learn this skills and although they could live without it. But living without it means they can’t do some of the things—they have less power.
I’d say then the power motivation (increase the space of your action) could be lumped together with the economic one or form a separate one.
Similar skill like this—learning a language. In gen pop it’s seldom the case unless you live in a country where 3⁄4 people know a second language (sadly not the case in my country). But it afaik it worked in the past with some elite societes where people learned french (lingua franca) or greek or latin or something to fit in. Languages also increase the space of your actions (you can understand more by yourself, talk to more people etc.) so this again could be “power” motivated.
Ok, I buy language—I think indeed, for example in 19th century Russia learning French was a marker of “fitting in” aristocracy, although it was not required for life. But I don’t know if there is any such society anymore where some social group tends to learn some language for status reasons only.