Thom Baguley asked about Orlanthi Property.
> clans, tribes etc. will vary where they draw the line, but does anyone
have
> a good example of a standard case (the Orlanthi 85% "all").
Communalism is a big thing in Heortling society ('Wah... you mean they're NOT Republicans?!??' :)) Most households comprise twenty to forty individuals from four or five generations, led by a senior male and a housemistress. (And of course a dominant alynx :)). Rights and obligations are constantly being exchanged through gifting.
Most households hold their rights to land etc. for life, but there is no automatic inheritance to one's heirs, and the Clan Ring can interfere and take away or exchange rights at any time. Think of a bloodline or a household (depending on size, the two concepts overlap but are not identical) as a corporation with shareholders (hmm, maybe they are Republicans after all). It holds collective legal rights and responsibilities in the same way that a business corporation does. A bloodline is the prime work and wealth organising unit as well as the domestic kinship unit. Membership and membership criteria for a bloodline are much more fluid than clan membership, and subject to economic pressures and personal politics. People quarrel or move; living arrangements at particular households change as fields fail or pastures are developed. Hence prime identification is always with the clan.
For odal property, hows about...
CLAN: tula and preservation/expansion of boundaries. Allocation of hunting, farming and herding rights to bloodlines/steads. King and warleader's hoard (through tribute/taxes) (no, not their hordes - that's different :)). Responsibility for temples and holy places.
Rights to significant natural resources (trade concessions, salt, metal, amber, sometimes water) may be gifted for a lifetime to bloodlines or individuals, but ultimately are held in communal ownership by the clan.
BLOODLINE: ongoing rights to pasturage, fields, forest resources and hunting lands. In practice these may not change for the life of the bloodline, and can be re-negotiated with the clan ring at any time. In exceptional cases (usually rewards for heroism/service) a bloodline will be granted a piece of land in perpetuity - in this we have the beginnings of private land ownership. A percentage of all an individual's crops harvested and cattle born go to the bloodline for redistribution.
Major ritual and magic items, and ancestral shrines are the property of the bloodline.
In terms of ownership, most cults can be treated as a bloodline.
HEARTHS/HOUSEHOLDS: Usually a subset of the bloodline. Stead buildings, major kitchen devices such as cauldrons, workshops, stables, dairies and some farm equipment. Most plough teams. Magical and ritual paraphernalia. Effectively, most crops and plantings are grown collectively at the household level. The senior male and the housemistress are responsible for most of the stead's day to day organisation.
If taken, thralls are owned by bloodlines/hearths, not individuals.
INITIATED MEN AND WOMEN: cattle. Say it again, 'Cattle'. The prime status symbol and 'coinage'. Sheep and other domestic animals. Personal belongings and effects. Prestige household goods. Coinage. Weapons, armour and bronzeware. torcs and jewelry. Storage pots. skins and pelts. weavings.
Trade and craft concessions, though technically gifted to a bloodline, may be effectively controlled by an individual.
Married couples combine their resources, but ownership clearly remains with individuals. A woman's dowry is like an early inheritance, while a man pays brideprice (gifts or labour) to his wife's parents and bloodline.
There is also constant redistribution of wealth through gifting/obligation networks (a significant part of male status rituals) and through cattle loans, dowries and brideprice. Conspicuous consumption is not a sign of wealth: conspicuous gifting is. Of course, every gift must be repaid, so gifting builds elaborate networks of obligation and political support, especially among men.
Women have a reputation for being able to amass and expand wealth more effectively than men. This is partially a result of the Asrelia mysteries that are part of female initiation, partially because they are less involved in the status/gifting rituals that are so central to men's social standing, and partially because they are set adrift from their family at marriage, and must be practical and cautious in retaining their personal wealth (dowry) among their husband's kin. 'To women, wealth and wisdom, to men the gift and the glory'. Married women have their own storage chambers dug into the earth, and are keepers of the household keys.
Cheers
John
Cognitive Artefacts! Reality is a strange attractor. The universe is at a complex point between randomness and chaos. Everything is true. Chaos => Sameness. Knowledge is evil. Art is both substance and surface - those who go below do so at their risk (Wilde). Follow your Bliss (Campbell). I didn't say that (Stafford). Happy, happy, joy joy.
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