Humakti and kinship

From: Jennifer Geard <geard_at_verso.org>
Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 22:31:21 +1200

Hi All,

I have another question for discussion...

What bloodline does the child of a Humakti belong to?

In the case in question the Humakti has resheathed with his birth clan and is now clan champion. The chief happens to be from the Humakti's original bloodline.

Here's my thinking so far:

• Humakti initiation involves cutting all relationships with kin, and "[w]ithout kinship, a Humakti is not a member of a bloodline or clan" (The Severing, ST 96). So normally a Humakti either has no bloodline to pass on, or might found a new bloodline.
• Resheathing, however, "allows him to remain in society without his actions bringing down divine wrath upon his kin" (The Resheathing, ST 96). Which kin are these (and what would the divine wrath be about)? If you resheathe do you sort of get your kin back along with the wergild claims that that would involve? What if you resheathe with a different clan or tribe: do you adopt new kin? Or am I misunderstanding it, and the wergilds that a Humakti must pay or be paid concern only the individual Humakti or maybe the whole clan in which the Humakti has resheathed?
• Humakti can marry, which is one of the classic ways of forming a kinship bond. Some Humakti even have children, although the non-marrying "Bare Blades" sort of Humakti consider these children to be the equivalent of undead. (To Marry or Not to Marry?, ST 106)
• In passing, the kin-severing theoretically means Humakti could marry partners who would usually be considered too closely related. Try telling Humakti siblings that they can't marry...

So:

If a woman marries a high-status (champion) Humakti in the default Heortling husband and wife marriage (assuming that any other type of marriage would be an affront to his status), do their children belong to her kin, to the chief's household (ex officio -- whoever the chief may be), to the clan in general, or to a bloodline which started with their father and is a little short of people for support?

How do you negotiate such a marriage? I normally expect the formal negotiations to take place between the elders of each bloodline/stead, with help from the clan aunties. In this case I'm guessing that the negotiations would either be handled directly by/with the Humakti (which is not really proper) or through the chief's stead as part of their extended household (without looking too closely at whether this is because of the Humakti's current role or his previous kinship ties).

What sort of career exits are there for in-brought weaponthanes -- not kin of the clan -- apart from dying bravely in defence of the clan? If you can no longer fight and you have no kin, what happens to you? A teaching role might be fine for a certain stage in life, but who feeds and clothes you? Is there an assumption that a weaponthane is able to build up the assets and mana to win the right of stead-founding from the chief and turn into a farmer?

Are Humakti any good as farmers? <grin> We've got one who's brilliant at harvest time, but we try to keep him away from the growing bits of rural life. (He even manages to kill the yeast in the war-band's homebrew. Or maybe he's selecting for really tough yeasts.)

Cheers,
  Jennifer

-- 
Jennifer Geard


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