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When I encountered Runequest's differentiation of character starting careers by culture level (primitive, barbarian, civilized), I was intrigued. But I never connected that to anything more interesting about character story arcs than "caveman encounters civilization and adapts" ala the original RE Howard "Conan" stories. But of course Runequest's creators intended stories about reliving ancestor initiation rituals - negotiating a dangerous wilderness alone to retrieve food, water, fuel. Taming/befriending a wild horse, dog, raven. Proving readiness for marriage (and therefore worthiness of the valuable family alliances it brings) with a feat of skill - a dangerous symbolic hunt, craftsmanship, etc. Defeating a traditional rival to avenge a loss or reclaim a family heirloom, the clan burial ground, a nebulous family honor.
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At mom's funeral I struggled and stumbled to articulate a sense of appreciation for how Mom gave us a lot of leeway to find our own paths, rather than trying to stuff us into a mold. More recently I've come to understand it better in terms of something I've heard my sister say a few times: "we don't own our children".
In retrospect that wasn't much of a stretch for Mom; we kids didn't fall very far from that tree, we were more in-tune with her side of the family than like Dad and his half-sisters' families. Learning about Mrs. upbringing, I ponder the differences and similarities between her father with mine - and while Dad was abusive toward Mom, that didn't spill over into overt abuse or being overbearingly controlling toward us kids. (Or at least not past an age where I was simply too young to remember.) Dad didn't push us to fit any particular mold either, the worst I can say is he just didn't set a great example of work ethic / self-discipline and a lot of that was a side effect of his ADHD and/or bipolar swings.