Fitting into Ikranankan society, the human beings, "Ershoka," become a warrior "phratry." On Earth, phratries were often exogamous (see here) but this cannot be the case with the Ershoka among Ikranankans. In any case, it sounds as if Ikranankans marry within their phratries.
On Ikrananka, phratries specialize:
Shekhej are caravaneers;
Deodaka, originally hunters, conquered and became officials;
Rahinjis are scribes;
Tiruts and Ershoka are soldiers.
However, within each phratry, there are domestic and other responsibilities. Young Ikrankans can be adopted into different phratries but not Ershoka. Each phratry initiates its members into "secrets." In the unstable Ikranankan civilization, kingdoms last for only a few generations but phratries abide.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I recall reading of how one chief of a phratry carried, as a sign of his office, a stone ax, indicating how ANCIENT his phraty was. Going straight back to the Stone Age of Ikrananka.
Sean
There are parallels with human societies; what Ikrananka has is an extreme form of "amoral familialism", and societies with that setup tend to be politically unstable, because where all loyalties and commitments are directed at blood kin, it's extremely difficult to build larger institutions and what ones there are are brittle and extremely corrupt.
This is why nationalism was a step forward, btw. It extended the feelings attached to families and clans to a much larger "fictive kinship".
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I have heard about very similar situations in some countries, such as Italy (esp. southern Italy). The state was usually weak, corrupt, incompetent, etc. So people felt more loyalty either to their families/clans or the Church.
Sean
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