Re: tribes

From: John Hughes <nysalor_at_...>
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 23:43:21 +1100


Peter:

> I don't buy this. The Tarshites are Heortling Orlanthi (even if
> they are overlaid with Alakoring traditions) and so would retain
> the Heortling clan traditions. Hence Tarshite clans are Sartarite
> clans.

QED. And red is blue. Is this an example of goring the sacred oxen? :)

I've been given an indication that Tarsh *is* based on family and tribe rather than clan, so I'm trying to imagine reasons why it might be so.

I think you're downplaying the Alakoring ancestry way too much.

Now would that be the traditional Heortling patrilineal clan, the traditional Heortling matrilineal clan, or the traditional Heortling cognatic descent clan? The traditional direct exchange marriage clan, the traditional preferred partner marriage clan, or the traditional open exogamy marriage clan? Perhaps the traditional Heortling 'clanless' clans of Garhound and Pavis County? If there's *one* lesson we can draw from Heortling social structures, its that they're extremely flexible in adapting themselves to an incredible variety of different circumstances.

And of course, in Tarsh we have traditional Heortling Orlanthi clans that don't happen to worship Orlanth. Whoops.

Kinship systems are *never* fixed in stone. They are a human technologies for exploiting and ordering an environment, and they change, adapt and occassionally come crashing down in flames. Their form depends on landscape, resources, and the yearly cycle of labour as much as human tradition. They're also normative, which means if a difficult law or tradition can't be openly changed, it will be ignored or broken even as people continue to mouth platitudes about how "this is our way".

The other big factor is trade and the wide circulation of coinage. If Tarsh is the richest kingdom in the Empire, and has long-established trade routes, then it's a society that is quite comfortable with the use of money and abstract wealth, and with relationships of trust and mutual profit that are *not* based on kinship. Money kills clans, as I noted in an earlier post. Direct blood families become more important, wealth is concentrated among a relative few, and for the wealthy, poor blood relatives become parasites. Communal wealth becomes less important, and the clan bonds based on barter and gifting are replaced by more direct exchanges with non-kin. Economic reality becomes much larger scale (Most Heortling clans produce much of their own needs).

The same pressures are being applied to the Sartarite clans, and if the Lunars continue to rule for another hundred years Sartar may end up looking like this vision of Tarsh. Less someone does something about it. *spit*. You, me and the Bandit Queen maybe. :)

Out of interest, whence your figure of Tarsh population as 90% rural?

Raise the tribes for Starbrow!

John



nysalor_at_... John Hughes

The aim of science is not to open a door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error. - Brecht, 'Galileo'.

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