>>This is a very important point. I've been doing quite a bit of
work
>>recently looking at the modern Talastari, and I'm hypothesizing
that they
>>have yet another conception of "clan," based around allegiance to
locally
>>powerful "chieftains" or "lords" - who themselves belong to
prestigious
>>bloodlines. Chieftains are still "elected" - carls can transfer
allegiance
>>to different chiefs, and a chief with no carls is no chief. A
chief, of
>>course, is anyone who could provide protection to sufficient carls
to be
>>recognized as a chief. Still called a clan, of course.
To which Greg said:
>This kind of relationship exists even among the Sartarites.
>A person can transfer his allegiance to an individual, even to a
hero band,
>which supercedes his clan and blood.
>Such procedures are not really unusual when clans regularly operate
>together and individuals are seeking to get outside of their clan
>opportunities.
Its sort of a question of degree isn't it? In Sartar, the norm is kin relationship (at least mythical kin relationship) to the clan leader. Elsewhere, the norm might be that smaller kinship groups pledge allegiance to more-powerful, established small kinship groups - these collections of kinship groups are termed "clan". There is a lot of range for flexibility in Orlanthi social organization.
Jeff
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