Re: Heortling Social Structure

John Hughes
> [Gloranthan Bingo cards ready folks?]
´
We ought to distribute packs of those at Tentacles...

> Socialist/primitive communist? Yes, to a certain extent. But with no
> legal imperatives operating *within* the clan (which is a law-free zone)
> it all comes down to tradition, bonds of kinship, and force of
> personality. In other words, there  is plenty of room for favouritism,
> resentment, rivalry, jealousy, corruption, ineptitude, graft and good
> old Orlanthi bluster. Most clan moots resemble a WWW wrestling ring as
> much as a parliamentary chamber. It's political theatre of course, but
> it can get pretty hands-on. There's no *serious* violence with a clan of
> course, that would be kinstrife, the ultimate taboo, but Storm
> conceptions of 'serious violence' go beyond harsh words. Frank, robust
> and open discussion can get pretty frank, robust and open.

Vote by mouldy vegetable missiles? Short distance eye-balling? Grabbing each others' shirt fronts? "Let's armwrestle about this"? Gloranthan Bingo card activities?

> The basic social unit is the stead lodge or longhouse or hearth: usually
> thirty to forty people of the one bloodline living together in the one
> large building.

You're stereotyping carl steads again. Cottars cannot afford those great longhouses, they are more likely to crowd about 12 to 20 people into a building at most half the size of a longhouse, with a lot less stable area (no need for it except for the cattle loans) but possibly some area where indoor craft is done.

> Its the unit of work, family and business, run by the
> hearth mistress, spakeman, and the senior men. Exchange and cooperation
> is the rule here: work together, eat together, plan together, defend
> each other. Its your classic era socialist kibbutz.

Your Saxon inheritance laws Germanic stead. (No Frankish inheritance stupidity where each son receives an equal share, but integrity of the economic unit as main purpose of inheritance.) Note that hearth mistress usually is not an elected or appointed office, but one assigned by marriage to the stead leader. I.e. by clan appointment. A bloodline may have a say which male leads the household, but the clan appoints his wife (you can only say no so many times...).

> Bloodlines typically comprise several lodges and smaller outlying
> dwelling that may house just a few people. Its the unit of external
> organisation and political power. Most communal ownership is invested at
> this level.

How many bloodlines does your average clan have? And in case of a cottar bloodline, wouldn't that (at least) be spread over several lodges (and also to people living as retainers on carls' steads)?

> Depending one how close the stead dwellings are it may be as
> fluid and autonomous as the hearth, or it may require informal
> consultation and requests for assistance from other bloodline hearths.
> However, loyalty and support with a bloodline are absolute: if they're
> not then the bloodline will split. (and they do). In a small clan, a
> bloodline may be unimportant. In a large or dispersed clan it may
> function as a mini-clan in itself.

<troll mode slightly on>Begging the question of strictly extragamous coupling in such a large or dispersed clan...</troll mode>

> Clans compromise several bloodlines. it is here that formal institutions
> hold sway: chief, fyrd, ring, moot, harst, lawspeaker, womens' circle. A
> clan runs cooperatively: in theory there is no internal compulsion
> except tradition, respect and ritual authority. A chief is elected,
> usually for seven years, and can be removed. Any decision can be
> challenged. Rivalries, jealousies and favouritism are a large part of
> life at this level. Luckily, clan members cannot initiate law suites
> against each other.

Which won't stop them from citing precedences and bickering for apportioned clan wealth as two rival clans would, right?

> In practice, on one level this leads to interminable
> politicking, but Orlanthi have a finely tuned  sense of what is
> acceptable and what is not.

Having that sense and listening to the signals in a dispute are two different issues, though.

> In times of crisis, most  internal
> politicking is put on hold and the clan units behind its leaders.

How does this sub-clan level system work when outside demands intrude its peace?

If I read Barbarian Adventures correctly, most Lunar punitive or corrective measures are exercised on tribal level rather than clan level (the only clan level activity/retaliation I can recall is the Sambari Firebull rebellion).

> Kingship is an ambivalent concept for the Orlanthi: most of their
> important myths are about bad kings (Yelm: the Evil Emperor) and good
> rebels (Orlanth).

You're exaggerating somewhat. There are plenty of myths of good king Orlanth or Vingkot, and again of Heort.

> Tribal kings are important in areas of large rural
> population and sophisticated economies, and everywhere in time of war.
> Orlanthi kinship is as much a ritual as a political office.

> Extended kingships? Empires? They don't fit well into the Orlanthi view
> of things. They exist of course, but to enjoy support an expansive,
> centralised Orlanthi kingship needs an extreme purpose: the only one
> that really cuts wind is to prevent the Doom of the World. When threats
> evaporate, Orlanthi empires tend to as well.

Glorantha being what it is, for each threat overcome two new ones are closer than the horizon. Doom of the World comes easily to the Orlanthi. But so do individual attempts at "solving" these problems.

Phenomena like cities, long ranging alliances and friendship to new powers come easily. Probably because of the Gift economy (which I snipped). Someone places an obligation on the Orlanthi, and they respond by going along with that, creating new opportunities for other obligations by gifts received.

However, there are two more important economical factors: tribute/plunder, and trade. Both are activities outside of the Gift economy in that demand precedes or at least doesn't follow receiving the "gift". IMO both are as intrinsic to Heortling society as is gift-giving.

The Harst myths show how trading even works inside a clan. It may start as gifting and counter-gifting, but soon becomes something different. Likewise tribute that can start as reciprocal gift for the gift of protection, but soon changes its nature.             Received on Sun 29 Apr 2007 - 05:16:17 EEST