>I wonder what the requirements on marriage planning and presiding
>over the loomhouse are. How much of the "first lady" jobs are
>implied in chieftainship? Is it the chieftain only, or does a
>husband-and-wife team compete for the post?
Is it even necessary for the wife of the chieftain to preside over the loomhouse? It would seem to create extreme difficulties in choosing the best candidates for either position which in turn implies one or other position is symbolic rather than actual. It's not possible to predict at the time a couple are married how well they are going to perform as leaders fifteen to twenty years later. Then there are complications like one partner dies and the other remarries. Would a chief's new bride be accepted as the clan's senior Ernaldan?
I suspect this is where the concept of sexual relationships in rituals not being adultery comes from. The Chief and senior Ernaldan have ritual obligations and those superceed the marriage vows if they are not married to each other.
>If so, can a female candidate for chieftainship provide the warrior
>paraphernalia for her champion?
Isn't a lot of this stuff going to be property of the bloodline rather than the individual. So who uses the items is less of an issue.
>My guess is that this exclusion of Ernaldans has a grain of "must be born
>into the clan" requirement, which most Ernaldans aren't. On the other
>hand, a woman eligible for chieftainship obviously has huge status and is
>a prime candidate for an "Esrolian marriage".
>
>I think we get into administration of human resources here. How many
>magically (implying socially, as in matchmaking) or otherwise highly
>specialized women (e.g. in crafts) are allowed to be married off outside
>of the clan, and how many are kept to the hearth of their births?
I think this is why Heortling marriages tend to be made early before an individual has become too valuable to the clan. However I bet there are more than a few spinsters who were thought to be too important to be allowed to marry out of clan. Fortunatly the flexible attitude to sex and children will mean that doesn't seriously affect the clans ability to reproduce.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/ ------------------------------
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