"The maternal kin is also
required to take part in a blood-feud if a child of
one of its daughters is killed and the culprit doesn't
pay, gets a part of the e/raic of such slain children
and has to intervene if such a child's fosterage is
improperly carried out."
This makes the most sense to me......In a longer term marrige (rather than a simple year type relationship) the in-comer whatever sex becomes effectively part of the new clan. However the old clan still keeps a interest, if their old clan member is poorly treated by their new clan or something untoward happens.
The main mechanic for this is however the concerns of the ex-clan members kin. If Clanswoman Herda marries into a clan many miles away who have little or no contact with her old clan (Marries a Issaries trader or some other mobile type maybe) then she has effectively left her Clan. Probably for good. Her old Clan may never hear from her again. If Herda marries Helgi from the next valley and sees her mother, father and brothers every marketday or so then there's going to hell to pay if shows up with a black eye! <Good Adventure Hook> at least for Pendragon Pass/Low Level RQ/HW games. Of course if her steading is raised to the ground by 'Foul Lunar Scum (tm)' and she carried off for the nefarious uses of the Commanding Officer then there will be two sets of of very angry Orlanthi's with a stake in doing something about it. Of course if her 'New' Clan Cheiftan is a Lunar Apeaser and her birth Clan more traditional......well its got <Hook> written all over it.
I see this as the main 'Plus' point for marriges between Clans at the local level. Of course Sons and Daughters of Cheiftans make for good political contacts......but if a large number of your warriors wives grew up in the the neigbouring clan and you have kin there yourself then the raiding is going to be light hearted at best....and when the real threat comes you're going to band together to protect each other. This is one of the things that would really bind a Tribe together in the long term.....you trust them more because their distant kinsman not because your King tells you to.
So you are 'de-facto' a member of the clan you live with...but your old clan keeps an intrest. Your own blood kin is likely to intervene if they see your poorly done to or even if they just decide to be nasty.....'She should never have married that Turnip farmer in the next valley, could have had anyone but oh no....'
This sort of thing is what keeps Law Speakers in Oats of course.
Although Herda is a member of her New Clan her blood kin can back her legal
actions, threaten violence, visit at odd times and drink all the beer etc
etc. Icelandic Saga are full of this sort of thing, Njal's in particular.
Icelandic Saga may not be a acurate portrayal of Orlanthi life but it gets
close at times....
DomT
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #821
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