From: Alex Ferguson (abf@yeats.ucc.ie)
Date: Mon 08 Mar 1999 - 21:43:29 EET
Jane and Guy exchange lots Interesting Kheldon Facts. I think
we may be headed for something of a terminological bunfight on
this thread, if I know my Digest; I'm not sure to what degree
the issue is 'matriarchy' (how the clan is governed), and to what
degree it's 'matrilineage' (how descent is reckoned). Here I'm
going to concern myself pretty much just with the latter.
> > what sort of Orlanthi man would agree to being an underhusband? How
> > tenable is the system if men aren't assured of passing down property
> > to their sons, and everything remains in the hands of the women?
> So what sort of woman would agree to being an under-wife? Why would
> they agree to a system where they aren't assured of passing down
> property to their daughters....? It works the same way.
The objection is surely that if patrilineage is the 'norm', there will
be a disincentive to matrilineal marriage. Perhaps so, but hardly an
insuperable one, given compensating 'incentives'. However, I don't
think that 'property' has anything to do with this. Does one mean
personal property (which can be passed down however one wishes) or odal
property (which can't really be inherited per se at all)?
> Actually, remove the requirement for them to be underhusbands, just
> make sure the children stay in the clan, and I don't see a problem.
> Most wives in standard clans aren't underwives, after all.
Indeed, the sort of marriage you and Guy are talking about seems not
to be the "underhusband" type at all, which is actually still a
patrilineal marriage, but the "Esrolian husband" marriage, which
is matrilineal. Well, not quite, since Guy suggests his clan is
female-only.
Mind you, this is the nittiest of nits, since personally I think
the 'seven types of marriage' is a pretty notional number, and that
in reality all sorts of nuances and variations exist, however they
happen to be codified by a particular clan. Each clan probably
only espouse (as it were) a small number of different marriage
customs, but they will know of, and parhaps recognise, a somewhat
larger number, pretty much corresponding to those neighbours that
they might normally countenance intermarriage with. If you get an
'unusual' marriage between clans who normally don't intermarry,
then one of the 'standard' seven is the most likely common legal ground
for coming to agreement on the form of the marriage, but if push comes
to shove, an exceptional sort of 'contract' can always be made, if
both sides are sufficiently determined so to do.
Slainte,
Alex.
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