Culture of Çeridgul

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Family Life

Childhood

Çerid hatch from eggs, typically laid in clutches of between one and three. Male children are more common than female children by a wide margin, to the point that some two-thirds of the total Çer population is male. Due to lack of sanitation or medical understanding, child mortality is high, and approximately one in four children do not survive their earliest years. Because of the low density of Çerid settlements, younger children socialize most with their own siblings, and interact with each other indiscriminately.

Over time, their behavior begins to diverge along gender lines, and they are permitted to mix with children from other nearby families. Boys tend to form relatively tightly-knit clusters of peers in "clubs", usually based on some convergence of mutual interests (or in opposition to some other club); while it is usual for them to be composed of individuals of a similar age, this is by no means the rule, and most clubs are willing to accept younger members of a similar inclination to themselves. Leadership tends to be collegiate and rather ad hoc; it is determined partially by seniority by age, but also by a tangle of other factors, such as popularity, aptitude in the club's focus, physical stature, and so on. Girls, by contrast, begin exhibiting the territorial behaviors that so characterize society in adulthood. Most of them associate themselves with a club as a sort of patroness or mascot (the precise nature of the relationship may vary from club to club, or even between the perceptions of the participants), and from their point of view the club becomes "theirs".

Whether a girl actively participates in the main activities of the club depends on the nature of the activities and the personality of the girl, but it will be usual for her to take a kind of semi-symbolic leadership role alongside the club's senior members. Her opinion will carry a disproportionately heavy weight in the club's social dynamics - a sort of "moral" force - and although she usually cannot force any issue directly, the club will tend to accommodate her opinions (although this is a two-way process; she will in turn, if she is savvy, tailor her stated opinions to appeal to the club, lest they disassociate themselves from her and select someone else).

As there are generally more girls in a given area than there are clubs, there cannot be a one-to-one correspondence. (While some larger clubs may be able to host several girls, this requires the latter to a) have sharply defined areas of "responsibility" that they do not have to share, b) have an extremely close bond between themselves, c) preferably both. Otherwise, they will attempt to split the club into factions and divide it among themselves.) Those girls who are unable to associate with a club, whether from low social status, incompatibility with nearby clubs, or simple lack of interest, will tend to associate in loose all- or mostly-female groups based around a shared outsider status

While socialization is considered an important part of childhood, it is nonetheless usual for children to receive instruction in, and provide assistance in, the subsistence and economic activities of the family, particularly those that are labor-intensive. As a result, by the time they are old enough to start their own lives, most Çerid are familiar with at least one trade, though they may not particularly excel at it.

At approximately fifteen years of age, children of both sexes depart their parents' home, though the underlying dynamics differ between males and females.

Male Bands

Males tend to leave of their own volition, having developed an urge to travel and see new things, usually without a particular aim in mind. While sometimes solitary, it is more usual for young males to join together in a band for company and mutual support - they may join a band that already exists and is passing nearby, or they may form one with their clubmates or other peers.

Male bands, once formed, tend to have a certain amount of stability in their group identity - individual members may come and go, but the bands remain for longer periods, with their own names and internal cultures; some date back to the time of the Translocation. Bands are nomadic by habit, roaming across the landscape, and generally make their living at some trade that fits this lifestyle - goatherds, teamsters, traveling tinkers or other craftsmen, hunters, bandits, mercenaries. While they may stop in one place for an extended period if there is sufficient reason - good pasturage for goats, sufficient demand for their services - this is usually a temporary state.

Because almost all desirable land is either owned or claimed by a female, male bands must deal with them on a regular basis, at a minimum to justify their presence on someone's property while traveling, but frequently to barter their services to the landowner, or else to negotiate a long-term stay if one proves desirable for the band. Whether any particular band is welcome for any length of time depends both on the personality and occupation of both band and landowner. A female innkeeper might very well give generous terms for the presence of well-behaved traveling musicians, with the musicians attracting business to the inn and the inn bringing the musicians an appreciative audience, while a band of rowdy mercenaries might have difficulty obtaining camping grounds from any respectable landowner (at least without coercion).

Males only rarely leave one band in favor of another, usually when intra-band relations break down irreparably. It is more common for an individual to leave to associate with a female - either to live on her property as a tenant, or to live under her roof as a husband. How this affects the band depends on its particular dynamics, but is usually the occasion for an emotional send-off accompanied by gifts - particularly in the case of a marriage. Nonetheless, even though in the long term a band may experience significant turnover in membership, most of them have at least a few senior members that remain with the band for most or all their lives.

As one might guess, from a sociobiological point of view, the movement of male bands through female territories plays a primary role in the formation of liaisons between the sexes, whether temporary or permanent.

Female Migration and Households

Whereas Çer males tend to leave their parents out of wanderlust, females tend to do so out of frustration. Throughout adolescence, females increasingly develop a territorial approach toward their surroundings which manifests as a desire for a "place of my own" - a separate home, which cannot be satisfied by living under the same roof as one's mother.

It is possible for a daughter who still lives at home in her mother's old age to inherit it upon the latter's death - or to have ownership ceded to her by her mother, usually if the latter is too physically ill or invalid to maintain herself as head of the household. Otherwise, however, a daughter must move elsewhere in order to establish herself. It is not unusual for females to undertake this search in groups, given the challenges presented by life on the road. They may either tag along with a male band or travel in an all-female group, but in either case are not characterized by the sense of community or identity that a band is, even if the members form close relationships with each other; a female travels with a group so long as they go in the same direction, but it is understood that she will eventually have to leave it. It is a very rare female that takes up traveling as a lifestyle, as most of them feel increasingly displaced and uncomfortable the longer they remain without a permanent home.

There are a number of strategies for finding a place to settle down. Most females at least begin their sedentary lives by becoming the tenant of some other female, exchanging a share of resources and a certain measure of personal sovereignty for a quicker and easier end to their search. Since many landowners are open to having tenants, a female may not have to move far in order to do things this way, and it is not at all unusual for a daughter to effect a quick escape from home by becoming a tenant of her own mother and building a separate home on the same land on which she grew up.

A large proportion of females, however, are not satisfied with tenancy or become dissatisfied with it, and seek out land they can own. Sometimes one may find a landowner who is willing to sell part of her land, or - if she is without immediate heirs - all of it, but in either case she must be willing and able to pay for it. (Custom does not allow land to be automatically inherited by non-relatives, and the territory of a deceased landowner without heirs or buyers is usually disposed of by her neighbors at their whim). For those who do not fall into this category, the remaining option is generally to find somewhere in which there are not yet any claims - because the land is difficult to access, or lacking in resources, or simply far enough away from population centers that few Çerid have reached them yet.

Whether as a tenant or owner, once a female has established a home territory, she is considered to be an adult for the purposes of society; she has rights and privileges, she becomes eligible to marry, and begins acquiring societal status. Many factors go into determination of status - whether one is a tenant or owner, one's material wealth, profession, looks, personality - but how one's status compares with those of one's local peers will have an impact on how well her territorial rights are respected, how much weight her opinion carries in the community, and how much effort males will make in courting her for eventual marriage.

Courting, Marriage and Parenthood

There is no particular stigma regarding physical relations outside of marriage. If an adult male and an adult female are both unmarried and wish to sleep with each other, they may generally do so without any objections other than those characteristic of jealousy or other personal objection to one of the partners. For that matter, there is also no objection to a married female sleeping with an unmarried male (though a married male is expected to sleep with no one but his own wife).

That said, what relevance marriage lacks to the propriety of sexual contact, it more than makes up for in relevance to living arrangements and parenthood: marriage is what binds individuals into a household. For an unmarried couple to live with each other under the same roof, regardless of what they do in bed, is highly scandalous. For an unmarried male to behave as a father toward a female's children is unthinkable, scarcely better than having a complete stranger help raise them.

Marriage is therefore an important step for those that wish to have any kind of permanent life together, and tradition dictates that it be approached through a particular form of courtship in which the male periodically presents gifts to the female to indicate his interest in marriage, and the female indicates her own continued interest by accepting them. The type and value of each gift will depend on the female's preferences and status and the means and skills of the male, but there is a considerable amount of flexibility here; the gift should ideally be something the female likes or finds useful (food is a unimaginative but often-appreciated courting gift) but does not, strictly speaking, have to be a physical object, and poems, songs, and strategic flattery are all valid possibilities. If the female is particularly interested in the male, she may allow him an unusual amount of leeway in gift-giving, and one of the daughters of Kadri and Tibed famously encouraged a destitute but handsome suitor by instructing him to pick up a twig from the ground and hand it to her, allowing her to accept it enthusiastically as a gift. Courtship is concluded when the female invites the male to live with her.

To be recognized, a wedding must be conducted in public and before witnesses. It consists of both partners asking their haçkeshid, the spirits of their ancestors, to permit the union: the groom asking the blessing of his haçkesh to leave his lineage to join that of the bride, and the bride asking the blessing of hers to accept the groom as a member of her lineage and a contributor to it as a father to her children. Provided no ill omens befall the ceremony, the spirits' acceptance is considered to have been demonstrated, and two are considered married.

While a male may only have one wife, there is no barrier to a female having multiple husbands, a fact linked to the Çerid's high gender imbalance. Not all females take more than one husband, and the practice tends to have a correlation with socioeconomic status: more prosperous and respected females are more likely to have, and attract, more husbands. Females may use different criteria on how to choose their husbands, and those able to have many will often have a list of desirable traits that her husbands are intended to fill between them: one might be more physically attractive but another a better conversationalist, for example. Regardless, it is considered important (by those with a certain measure of wisdom) to ensure that they get along well with each other, and it is not unusual for a female to either introduce a suitor to her existing husband(s) during the courtship process to get them used to one another, or to encourage simultaneous suitors who are already comfortable with each other: brothers, friends, or bandmates.

After marriage, a female's husbands not only cohabit with her, but are the fathers of her children in the view of society. It is important to note the plural: Çerid consider a child to have as many fathers as its mother has husbands, although a child may have a favorite father. Because the genetics of scale color are not straightforward and because a female has considerable biological leeway in whether and when to conceive, the literal paternity of any of her children is obvious to no one but the mother, and it is one of the strongest taboos of Çer society for her to discuss it with anyone for any reason. As a result, the entire concept of biological fatherhood is not publicly recognized and most males are hazy on precisely how it works.

A wife, her husbands, and their pre-adult children form the basic family unit. The wife is the protector of the land on which the family lives (or, if a tenant on someone else's land, has been delegated some of that responsibility by the owner), and the protector of the family itself, and is responsible for most heavy or outdoor work, while her husbands tend to have a focus more on childcare and domestic duties. Any cottage industries or growing or gathering of food tend to be shared, or divided relatively equitably, by the partners, particularly if the household is small or poor.

Customs and Traditions

Property

After leaving their mothers' homes, females become very conscious of status and territory - they like to have it made clear what is theirs and what is not, and are frequently possessive of what is theirs. This applies to many things, both tangible and intangible, but the classic example is land, which is almost exclusively owned by female heads of household - or, as it is seen through the lens of Çerian society, the female in question is the trustee of the local zeren, having its exclusive permission to use and defend the land, and becoming the interpreter of the zeren's will.

The owner of land will mark its boundaries prominently. In areas where natural boundaries already exist, the markers may be relatively simple - poles erected along a riverbank, paint applied to a rock face - but, where the boundary is not otherwise obvious and requires attention drawn to it, may involve constructions of prominent cairns at intervals. The symbolism in boundary markers may vary slightly in the details, but almost universally involves the symbolism of claws pointed outward from one's territory. Frequently, two adjoining properties will have a narrow space between the lines of their boundary markers; this is a sort of formal zone of joint ownership, which acts as a buffer and neutral space between the owners. Roads and paths are frequently built in these spaces, so that people may travel easily across the landscape without entering someone's exclusive territory.

A female may acquire land with the blessing of its zeren, either by claiming an uninhabited area or having obtained it by agreement from another female. How much land a female may reasonably hold depends in large part upon the size of her household; as for social reasons (see further below) it is necessary for a property to be patrolled in search of entrants, the more household members there are, the more territory can be patrolled. The primary mechanism for conveying the use of property between unrelated females is ultimately by a form of leasing: many new families, unable to acquire decent property conveniently, may be allowed to settle on a particular portion of the land of a higher-status female, use its resources, and remain unmolested upon it, in exchange for providing labor or materials toward the maintenance of the greater household - the lessee gains many of the benefits of land ownership at what is, in the short term, a cheaper price, while the landlady obtains a household resource base larger than that her own family could provide by itself. Twelve years is a common lease term, at the end of which the lease may be renewed, or the lessee may (often) purchase the leased land on amicable terms.

Entering a female's property proceeds by one of three methods:

• The intent to cross a property entirely for the purposes of transit - stopping only to rest - can be signaled by the carrying of a flag of a particular pattern, which is in fact the national flag; its use in this latter capacity derives from the sense of neutrality associated with the former. Traveling "beneath the banner" signals an intent to move across property in a timely fashion without claiming its resources or offending its owner or its zeren; so long as the party holds to these limitations, the owner shall not prevent them from doing so (if they do not, they can be evicted at the owner's discretion). While even a traveling party short on food may not hunt or gather while "beneath the banner", many enterprising owners along popular travel routes will sell provisions and accommodations in a rough form of innkeeping.
• One entering a property for emergency purposes may claim "the mercy of the Gentle Eye" if challenged by the owner, either through verbal declaration or using a black banner with a white circle in its center. Making this claim states that the person trespassing is doing so in dire need of the owner's aid against a threat to health or life - aid to be obtained either through some action on the part of the owner, or through the provision of something on their property. For example, should a traveler be out of water and the nearest source is on a nearby property, entering said property under the mercy of the Gentle Eye to obtain a drink and refill one's canteens may be allowable. It should be said that the owner still has the right to evict someone who uses this tactic, but doing so carries a certain social risk: it would be understood if the owner could reasonably feel that she cannot spare the aid requested, or if the claim is being made under false pretenses, but to refuse someone genuinely in need when in ample possession of the needed thing would, if it became known, lower her standing among her neighbors.
• One who intends to visit a property as a destination for any reason, by contrast, must obtain the owner's specific leave to do so. Ideally, this must be done before passing the boundary at all, which presents the problem of signaling its inhabitants; regular patrols of the property are required for this reason, though the process may be eased by the designation of obvious waiting areas. Once the owner's attention has been obtained, she will proceed with a ritual challenge, demanding to know the purpose of the visit and the intentions of the visitor. This is often far less rigorous toward males, who (if unmarried) frequently wander across the landscape on various forms of business, often useful, and are usually far more welcome visitors. Female visitors, by contrast, usually receive more extensive questioning unless the owner is already on very good terms with them; this is not necessarily a genuine expression of suspicion about the visitor's intentions (though it may be), so much as a display of territorial rights, and even those with whom the owner is on fairly good terms may be subject to it.

Males are not technically forbidden from owning land, but they are considered to be disfavored as interpreters by zerenid. Neighboring owners generally will not take a male's claim seriously, to the point that they may very well ignore it altogether, or else attempt to marry him to obtain it (if a male were married already, his wife would already own the land). Sedentary males looking for their own land are somewhat of a niche case in any event; most adult males are either in a nomadic male band, and therefore have no land to own; or they are looking for a wife. The few who fall into neither category usually become a tenant on someone else's land instead of claiming their own.

Timekeeping and Holidays

In the laurisilvan forests of the interior highlands, where most Çerid make their homes, the seasons are relatively indistinct; the changing path of the sun and of the lengths of days provides an indication of the passage of time, and the southern winter is somewhat rainier than the summer, so the Çerid are aware of the rough length of the year and keep a count of how many there have been between the translocation and the present day (measuring from the beginning of the rainy season), but generally do not keep a precise count of the days themselves, nor divide the year on any scale between days and years; there are no equivalents to weeks or months.

There are not many Çerian holidays per se; the Çerid work when they need to work, give offerings to the spirits when it is appropriate, and use the rest of the time as they like. The main fixed event, held at the end of the rainy season, is the Feast of Unbinding, which commemorates the anniversary of their arrival on Micras and deliverance from slavery. The largest Feast of Unbinding is held at Gultaj, where it is the occasion for the annual Vocal Assembly, and a large portion of the Çer population travels to be present there, but many households and outlying communities will hold their own Feasts for those that do not want to be away from home.

The Feast of Unbinding lasts for an indeterminate period, usually around twelve days but varying with the size and complexity of the event. But during the Unbinding season, it is expected for the rules of etiquette surrounding entry into property to be relaxed: females will allow visitors entry without rituals or challenges, and cross into each others' territory (mostly) without animosity. For someone to take undue advantage of this generosity, by plundering resources or objects from one's land or home, is considered to be intensely disrespectful to the point of being sacreligious, an offense against the local zeren and a sign that one has allowed a dark kath into their soul.

Diet and Cuisine

Food Sources

The Çerid, biologically speaking, are adapted for a relatively carnivorous lifestyle; their teeth are not suited to grinding tough foods, and they lack the capacity to break down significant amounts of cellulose, and are therefore unable to process leaves and stems. Aside from those used as herbs or spices, generally the only way such items find their way into Çer food is to combat outright starvation, as a medicinal substance, or, occasionally, thoroughly cooked (usually as a filler in a stew).

Far less taxing to them are more cellulose-poor and energy-rich plant foods: fruit, nuts, tubers and other root crops, pulses, and grains. These things, together with edible fungi, make up a substantial portion of the Çer diet, since even with an ingrained preference for meat, the ability to feed everyone - as it has in various periods of human history - has depended on a culinary tradition that is willing to make use of, and make appetizing, whatever foods are available.

The bulk of the meat in the Çer diet is goat; feral herds could be found roaming the island at the time the Çerid arrived. Their similarities in ecology and behavior (and taste) to the ejdenid native to the Place That Was made it relatively easy for the Çerid to redomesticate them, and many nomadic male bands now make their livings herding goats across the landscape. Fish is also popular, particularly by the coasts and even more so on the arid stretches where there is relatively little else reliably available. Chickens are beginning to be kept for meat and eggs as well, though they still have something of a dubious reputation (feathers having never evolved in the Place That Was, the earlier generations of Çerid considered feathered animals to be "creepy"). Hunting for wild game remains both a source of food and a popular pastime.

Plant agriculture is not far advanced. The early Çerid refugees were on far less familiar ground with local plants than with goats and fish, and neither the slopes of the laurisilvan interior nor the more arid coasts lent themselves well to farming. Although today some settlements - in the more densely-population interior areas and around the Bay of Winds - have increasingly adopted a kind of small-scale garden agriculture, growing beans, tomatoes, garlic, coriander, and mushrooms, most plant-based foods are still gathered from the wild, particularly nuts, berries, and fruits.