I'm making a space opera setting. One of the alien races

>>52962824
Gin Tama?

>>52962824
Meiji restauration Japan is a precedent, albeit not as strong.
Japan is weird in that they managed to successfully merge a lot of advantages the western powers gave them with their own values. They looked at european countries and said "ok this worked, this didn't work, we need to do it like that".
They actively learned from others' mistakes in order to reduce the gap, while conserving a lot of their own identity and customs.
An other example would the Krogans in Mass Effect, who are like Japan in that they were uplifted by other powers, but to ultimately try to fuck everyone other (kinda like Showa Japan), and to be taken down by the more ancient powers.
In both cases, as you said, there are remnants of "useless" things like ceremonial objects, rituals, and an importance given to spirituality we have lost in western societies

>>52962824
I wouldd suggest looking at Klingon culture from Star Trek, as that's effectively what they are.

Well, perhaps in space battles, they prefer to board enemy ships, rather than getting into shooting battles.
A lot of emphasis on "honour" in fights
A monarch based government still
Very territorial and suspicious around other races
A general distrust for the newer technology, with things like religion and natural medicine still being popular
Maybe things like fighting pits, or slavery are still part of their culture

>>52962824
They're going to have a lot of their ceremonies, social mores, and rituals either be preserved or persist in a slighlty different way.

This will result in a LOT of strife in their society, as technologies transform the economy and through it, society and political principles - but the last two will change at a glacial pace. A lot of effort will be expended to try and make everything work The Old Way (and even sabotaging things to preserve them), because everyone is expected to behave as their parents, grandparents and ancestors did.

This will probably be a society oriented on the survival of as much people as possible (with outcasts and marginals being the designated neccessary sacrifices), and not the one oriented on maximum efficiency, development and experimentation (where individuals are expected to be self-sufficient and fiercly competitve).

>>52962824
What you need to do is think about what your pre-uplifted race's culture was like. Then think up a bunch of different traditions and cultural quirks your race would have, then ask yourself, "which of these traditions wouldn't interfere with a space tech empire? Which would interfere with progress? Any that could accidentally help in a space tech empire?" and so forth.

>>52962824
extremely small population on a space-empire scale, if they breed anything like humans. maybe under a hundred million.

>>52964709
This is assuming that the uplift event happened really recently. If it's been about 100-200 years then this wouldn't be a concern if they had a human-like reproduction rate.

Read King David's Spaceship or the High Crusade.

KDS features a collection of rational actors performing intrigue to exploit the rules of the new, higher-tech world.

High Crusade is just lulzy English nobility steal a rocket an Deus Vult their way through aliens.

Depending on how recent your uplift is, cultural norms may follow the latter (i.e., a lack of scientific understanding leads to faith and superstition guiding their actions) or they may see the world in a pragmatic light, with familiarity with the systems of the interstellar realm, while still being colored by the traditions and fanfare of a medieval political system.

There's also the question of how they were uplifted. Peacefully, forcibly, as slaves, as equals?

I think the original Mass Effect series did a good job explaining that concept with the Krogans. Also, what these anons said >>52963040 >>52963714 is pretty spot on.

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>>52962824
I've got something similar in a setting only the ones who were elevated turned out to be humans who were abducted long ago. I haven't quite decided if their abductors died out, perhaps to diseases, or their own abductees turned on them but those humans became the inheritors of the dead civilization.

Flash forward and good ol' Earth standard humans run into them during Earth's early years of exploring the galaxy. Wackiness ensues. I liked the idea of humanity finding out the aliens are ourselves, with enough centuries for it to be a real culture shock. We all may look alike but there is very little feeling of kinship. This thread feels a bit familiar since I found myself wondering about what they retain from their Earthly culture, what new elements they make for themselves, and what might they adopt form the aliens.

And I'm sure it's been done, many times, by various scifi authors. Or video games. I don't care, I like it.