I thought I would take a stab at answering my own questions, at least
for the one culture I can claim to know anything about. I take as my
baseline the view of Dara Happa as being patriarchal, indeed male
dominated, and extremely rule-bound.
As John noted, sex for the DHn male is polluting and dangerous.
Presumably this carries over for the DHns to their view of women, and
so they view women as carriers of this pollution, and as essentially
traps that keep men from achieving Yelmite purity.
(In RW terms I see the DHns as being almost Deuteronomic in their
proscriptions. Contrast this with the model of the Roman, for
example; for the Roman, the be-all and end-all of male virtue was the
proof of dominance. DHns and Romans are similar in that the male was
dominant, and that the culture was strongly patriarchal; but for the
Roman, unlike the DHn man, all was essentially allowed as long as it
didn't lessen the dominant virtue of another citizen. For me the new
Lunar society may subscribe to something more along the Roman way.)
In any case, on to my questions:
> 1. how are women expected to behave in public in each of these
> cultures? for example do they need to be veiled, are they expected
> to be accompanied by chaperones at all times, etc?
Women are essentially prohibited from independent public activity in
traditional DHn society. All virtuous women and all female children
are to be accompanied by chaperones while in public, and virtuous
women are expected to conceal themselves with cloth over their hair
and bodies. Extremely traditional DHn women shave their heads
entirely, in order to prevent the lustful enticement of their hair
from polluting the men around them.)
Note the term 'virtuous' women. There are prostitutes, but in
traditional DHn society these are officially prohibited to be DHn -
thus all prostitutes are (officially) foreigners and are thus deprived
of citizenship rights.
> 2. what spaces are all-male? all-female?
All public spaces are all-male, with the exception of the women's
markets. Most of the home is reserved for women, especially the
kitchen; generally the men are isolated in the public reception rooms
and their bedrooms. Women and men have separate sleeping areas.
Women are only allowed in public during the great festivals (see
below).
> 3. what is the legal status of women? are they allowed to own
> property on their own? divorce their husbands? be educated?
Poor, no, no, and not formally. Women are always subject to the will
of their closest male relative or their husband. They can be divorced
only if their husband agrees to it, or if their father or, after his
death, closest remaining male relative, can prove that the husband was
negligent in his duties.
Women's formal education is limited to religious instruction -
essentially on their duties as women. However, there is a fair amount
of illicit education, especially in the urban areas.
> 4. if divorce occurs, what is the legal status of the woman
> afterwards? can she remarry? does she receive alimony?
The women cannot remarry. She receives alimony if the husband was
deficient in his duties; however, if she was divorced with cause, she
receives no payments (and often is not supported by her family
afterwards)
> 5. how are female children treated? is there infanticide? are they
> educated? all the time or only for upper classes?
Female children are treated as household servants-in-training by the
men. Infanticide is, however, not practiced.
> Hot topic #2 is sexuality. Again, for each of the cultures above:
> 1. how public is personal sexuality? are married couple allowed to
> touch in public? kiss?
Public sexuality is forbidden at most times in DHn society. Physical
contact between men and women is heavily discouraged, though not
legally forbidden.
The exceptions to this are the great festivals, the Lodrilalia and the
Deezolan festival. In the Lodrilalia the proscriptive rules are
generally relaxed. In the Deezolan festival, the position of men and
women are reversed: men are expected to be obediant to the women, are
confined to house, whereas the women get to make the public decisions.
The nature and extent of those decisions varies by location
> 2. how public is representational sexuality? are there nude
statues?
> sexual art in public?
Traditional DHn culture has no representational sexuality. There was
male nudity in statues, but no female nudity.
> 3. what is the view towards pre-marital and extramarital sexual
> relationships? if discouraged/forbidden, what is the effect of
> getting caught, on the man and the woman?
Both premarital and extramarital relationships are forbidden. The
punishment for men in both cases is up to the male representative of
the woman; generally the choice is between banishment from the
community and restitution. For women, the punishment is usually death
by sun exposure.
> 4. what is the view of bisexuality? of adult male homosexuality? of
> paedophilia?
All forbidden. The punishment is usually death by sun exposure.
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